I, Pirate
by Seldavia
Summary: Formerly titled Self-Destruct, no longer a oneshot. A solitary Space Pirate has an odd reaction to Phazon and starts to think for itself. Metroid Prime. Rating has changed.
1. Chapter 1

I never thought I would know what it would be like to have an _I_.

Once I got it, I knew I had to keep it. It was not something we were supposed to have. We could not work as one if one of us had an _I_. All abnormalities were to be reported to central Command. But, I was not breaking laws. We were free to examine any mutations or other effects of Phazon, which had to be the cause of this spontaneous awareness. If the _I _had gone to a soldier, an Elite, it would have destroyed itself. But I was part of the science team, and therefore free to examine this phenomenon that was _I_,

I learned quickly why _I_ did not have approval among central Command. _I_ made me consider things that went outside normal examination. Like the fact that our failure ratio greatly surpassed that of our successes. That the Phazon was rapidly moving out of our control. That the Metroids could never be anything more than parasites, always eating, useless to no one but themselves.

Still, the _I_ went unreported. I was not breaking any laws. Our primary directive was to do all we could to make ourselves stronger. And the strongest had an _I_. Ridley had an _I_. This form had its own thoughts, that we could not see. We could see each others' minds, but not Ridley's, because of interference from the _I_ The Hunter, too, had an _I_. The Hunter did not follow orders from her own people. Or, rather, she did but only in a way satisfying to her _I_. An _I _was a powerful thing, and therefore merited further study. Perhaps we could harness the _I_ and become stronger ourselves.

The need to report my findings to another being with an _I_ began to consume me. The others would either dismiss my reports or have me terminated. The _I_ was like Elite rations…once I had it, I could not let it go.

I became aware of another _I_ moving about the planet, its erratic movements signaling to me that it followed no orders but its own. I could not leave my station, and hoped that it would come to me. Or, at least, that it would be found by the others, who would share their findings. Perhaps they would not recognize the _I_, and then I could procure it for my own research.

Then we got the emergency message. The Hunter was among us. So this was the _I _which I had craved. Yet my instinct to seek and destroy did not kick in. Here was a chance to examine another _I_. The Hunter was dangerous, of course. I spent many hours putting together a containment plan. Something that would protect me from not only the Hunter, but also the others if they learned what I was about to do.

Ah, the terrible power of the _I_. To plan against my own! For those who were my purpose of existence! But, still, I could not pass up this opportunity. We could gain much from this knowledge. I just happened to be the one who came up with the idea.

She came halfway through one of my experiments. I watched as the others fell upon her. Her movements were even more erratic than usual, signaling the irrational desperation bioforms display when they have little energy left to expend. I waited for the right moment. She mowed down the others, though with difficulty, until one was left. The other felled her with a bayonet thrust, and she lay still, though we both could sense life signs. The other raised its hand to end the body signals.

I rent him asunder.

Yes, I felled one of my own. But, I did not break any laws. I needed the Hunter to better examine the mystery of the _I_. It is not something that could be explained to one without an _I._

I monitored her life signs carefully. I needed her conscious, but unable to inflict any damage. I put her in one of our holding tubes and released a very small amount of energy into it. Then I waited.

She gained consciousness quickly, though she seemed disoriented. The moment she sighted me she aimed her weapon, but it had no power. I heard her utter a series of words that the hominids use that have no meaning other than to express frustration.

"What do you want?" It was a digital voice, doubtless some translation of what she had spoken. "I'm no lab rat for you to play with."

I had no preface for this meeting. So I merely began. "The parasite energy forms, the Metroids…your analysis would conclude that they have no practical use, correct?"

A pause. "What?"

Did I not make myself clear? "The energy parasites. We have attempted to use them but a parasite is useful to none but itself. Do you reach the same conclusion?"

"Why are you asking me?" I could sense irritation. "You shut me in here to ask me questions about Metroids? Isn't that your job? Surely that's not part of your orders."

"Our orders are to deliver the bio form Samus Aran to central Command, dead or alive. You are alive, and there is no time limit specified., so I have not broken any laws In the meantime I have determined that it is in our best interest to examine the nature of the _I_."

"The what?" She seemed impatient. Her movements indicated that she had become focused on finding a weak point in the holding tube. But I had secured it, so I continued.

"Bio-form Samus Aran is a self-aware entity," I explained. "So is bio-form Ridley. They possess an _I. _Due to an accident involving Phazon, I too have an _I_. I wish to examine the nature of this phenomenon."

She lost patience with me. Sitting on the floor of the tube, she spoke with a change in voice tone that indicated irritation and a form of amusement. "Perfect. The Pirates are running loose all over Tallon IV and I get stuck as the research subject of one with a Stand Alone Complex."

I decided to change the subject. "Of what type is your exoskeleton? We have attempted to replicate it, but it has proven disastrous whenever we attempt to re-create the spherical form."

She made a short sound of amusement. "You'd have to ask the Chozo."

"The Chozo are an extinct species."

"Exactly."

I processed this, slowly. The Hunter had gained her abilities, somehow, from the Chozo. This species became scarce after a series of disasters, and we had killed off the remainder.

I had stumbled upon something beyond our current paradigm.

"We cannot obtain the technology of an extinct species…therefore, your weaponry and abilities are unobtainable due to our own actions."

"Good for you. You get a prize. Now what? You might as well kill me, then."

This was unforeseen. "You do not have a desire for self-preservation?"

"Wh-you have a very literal mind. All right then, what are you going to do now, little scientist bug? Do you have a name?"

"This entity is known as 8411-B. But this entity wishes to understand the nature of the _I_, which the bio-form Samus Aran also possesses."

"_Just_ Samus will be fine, bug. What do you mean, the I?"

"Our strength as a species comes from thinking and working as one. The void made by the loss of one of us can easily be filled with replication of our DNA. But there is more power in certain bio-forms that are unique. You, for example. You are only one, but you destroyed our colony on Zebes. You do not readily associate with other hominid forms. Is this the power of _I_? How does it work?"

She stayed silent for a long time. When she spoke again, I could tell from the rise in her bodily temperature and shift in her speech that this had somehow angered her, deeply. "I didn't choose to be this way, bug. I had no say in it. _You_ insects destroyed the life I was born into. _You_ went after the Chozo and sent them looking for someone to counter you."

She registered incredulity as I eagerly came across another paradigm shift. "So, we are alike! I too gained my _I _involuntarily. I was experimenting with Phazon and suddenly gained an awareness outside the Group."

"I think that's where the similarities end, bug." Her irritation rose. "What are you doing?" she demanded as I moved toward the controls that monitored her life support.

"It is very clear to me now." I allowed more energy into the holding tube, and prepared to open it. "The secret to controlling the galaxies is to have an _I_. You have one, and Ridley has one, and now I have one as well. Those without an _I _are inferior."

She stood as I opened the holding tube. "You're just letting me go?" She aimed her cannon-like weapon at me, point-blank. I did not move. "You know I can destroy you. Is that what you want?"

"You are superior, as you have a more sophisticated _I_. Those who are superior have rights to the control of the galaxies." She wavered, and I wondered if she did not wish to harm another _I_. Another _I_ that posed no threat to her, that is. "But, if you would consent to it, I would be interested in further examining the mysteries of the _I_."

"So…what does that mean?" She lowered her weapon slightly, still suspicious. "You want to follow me?"

"You have an _I_, and Ridley has an _I_. As do countless others in the universe, I assume. All those without an _I _are inferior."

I sensed interest. "Including other Space Pirates?"

"Yes. We…or rather, they…will self-destruct. It has already begun. They have strengthened your _I. _They refuse to see that their experiments with Metroids are self-destructive. They do not realize that the race they destroyed was the key to the weapons of the Hunter. They will destroy themselves."

She lowered her weapon, then made a short, light sound of amusement. "All right then, 8411-B, if that's what you call yourself. If you want to tag along because you're convinced the Space Pirates will self-destruct, that's just fine with me."


	2. Chapter 2

She then turned and acted as if I were not there, shifting her attention to the computer panels in front of her. I watched the screens offer up information without any prompting, confirming our observations that she had found a way to hack into our systems. She moved carefully, methodically, occasionally raising her head upon hearing a sound other than the constant hum of machinery.

For my part, I opened a wall panel that contained a series of missile launchers. They were supposed to be used against rogue Metroids, but I knew that upon acquiring my _I_, I had become an enemy of my own people. They would kill anyone associated with Aran, and any traitorous act was punishable with termination. The launcher could be easily mounted on the shoulder and plugged into visual sensory nodes, so I had finished arming myself before she moved on to the next room.

I stood in the doorway while she shot down the Others, who took no notice of me whatsoever, being completely focused on their goal. In any case, they would not open fire on me until my desertion had been confirmed by central Command. I was merely a bystander until declared guilty, but I did not know how long I could use this shield. They attacked her with ferocity even by our standards, mindful of the large reward offered for her capture. It was not often that we were offered incentives.

Once the Others were all dead, she returned to the computer panels. Interested in whether she was looking for something specific or merely taking a methodical approach to data acquisition, I asked her, "What are you looking for?"

She turned around, startled, as if she had forgotten I was there. "What do you know?" she demanded.

"Anything that is in those panels, unless it has been entered after I secured you for study, We are privy to all others' information. What you are reading there is merely the last entry made by whoever was at the computer," I explained.

"What do you know of the Chozo artifacts?" She demanded, a tense tone in her voice indicating that my health might depend on the answer.

I gave her information freely. After all, she was an ally _I_. I had more in common with her than the Others at this point. "Only that they possess some great power, and are connected to the remnants of the Phazon meteor in some way. You will want to keep examining the Others' notes if you want to find out more. I will have missed any updates after I left my station."

She stepped over until she was standing in front of me. "You're quite a blabbermouth for a Space Pirate. How do I know you're not some kind of spy, or leading me into a trap?"

"If my speech interferes with your examinations, I will be silent. I was merely curious." I thought for a moment. "We are directed by central Command. What directs you? Is it based on the information you find?"

"Somewhat." She left it at that and proceeded to the next room. Clearly she did not wish to communicate. Still, this central question, of what to follow, stayed solid in my mind. My _I_ was new, so all I could do was follow another. There must be something driving hers. Or did it come from within?

The possibility gave me a strange, tantalizing feeling. To be directed from inside! Once I confirmed this I would have to ask her how to do it myself.

I followed her through five more doors, which contained 4 security cameras, 3 Wave Fighters, 2 Ice Fighters, an Elite, and a series of small spiny creatures that had somehow found their way into the lab area. The local fauna had been quite adept at getting into our restricted areas, and from what I had heard, even populated the ruined frigate ship.

She paused, and then made an involuntary movement with her hand toward her face. Then she turned around and started back the way she came.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I have to go back to the Chozo Ruins," she replied absently.

"Why are you going that way?"

She turned. "What do you mean?"

I pointed to the next door. "There is an elevator leading to the Magmoor Caverns two rooms down. It is the quickest way from here to the Ruins."

She came back slowly, eternally suspicious. "How do you know? Have you gone there?"

"I have never been to the Ruins. We are not allowed there. Actually, I was never allowed to leave my station. But we were required to learn all possible exits to the planetary surface."

She hesitated. I realized the Hunter could not be a threat to us if she were not naturally cautious. "Would you like me to go first?" I asked. When I didn't receive an answer, I walked to the door myself. My _I_ had awakened a delicious curiosity in me, one that insisted on seeking things rather than waiting for them to come to me. The moment she mentioned the Ruins, I _needed_ to see them, even though we were not allowed in. _Because_ _I_ had not been allowed in.

I stepped through the doorway and the three Others there paid me no attention. The second Aran walked in, the Others sensed her foreign presences and leaped up to attack her. I moved off to a corner of the room where I would not be hit in the cross-fire.

But one of the Others had seen me. A team leader, something I had not realized when I walked in. "8411-B! What are you doing?"

I knew there was no use in my explaining my actions, so I merely fired one, then two missiles. He split apart and gave me no more trouble.

Aran approached the smoking corpse, having already dispatched the other two. She stared at it, then at me, with intense incredulity. "Did you just kill one of your own?"

"They are not my own," I said simply. "They do no possess an_ I_."

She regarded me for a long time, as if only really seeing me for the first time. "So…will you follow anyone with an _I_? What about Ridley?"

I considered this. "Ridley would not accept another _I_ in his presence. He would terminate me. But you do. So the answer is no."

She said nothing for a long while. Hominids are expressive creatures, but I could only see her eyes, and I could only determine a calculating expression from them. "All right," she said at last. "Where is this elevator you mentioned?"

"This way." I turned to the right and opened the door. It led from a small hallway to an elevator platform. I pressed my hand (the one I used for examinations; the other ended in a long scythe like weapon) against the stone block in front of it and it lit up. Both of us stepped onto the platform and it rose up into the lava fields.

Aran seemed much more at ease in the caverns, probably because there were far fewer of the Others there. We had many stationed there at one point to draw geothermal energy from the lava, but only a few remained for maintenance now. I followed her closely, taking note of her movements. After she blew up a floating creature, she waited for the gas it emitted to dissipate. I did not know if that gas would be poisonous to me as well, but it would be foolish for me to examine that now.

The makeup of the walls changed, from metamorphic rock to igneous slabs hewn by a biological creature. But they were weakened from interference from plant matter and the weather effects of the planet's atmosphere. I did not understand why such an advanced race as the Chozo, which had designed the Hunter's armor, had built their home with such inferior materials.

She paused in front of a series of etchings in the walls. I examined it, then asked her, "Can you read the Chozo script?"

"Yes," she said flatly, as if asking further questions would be dangerous. But I could not help myself…what abilities did she possess that allowed her to read a dead language?

And she had mentioned that her suit was of Chozo make. How was this possible? We had found numerous objects above our comprehension, that held great power, but such technology seemed impossible to connect to the extinct species. "How did you learn their writing, and why did they give you such impressive technology?"

"I lived among them for a time. No more questions, bug," she snapped. I resolved to be more cautious in my inquiries. I felt a nagging desire to know exactly what had been written upon the wall, but realized that such information was probably not worth the risk.

We entered another door, but had hardly moved three steps when an extraordinary event occurred. A terrible screeching rent the air, like the hunting cries of Metroids but harsher, with a strange echoing quality. The light in the room seemed to coalesce into three tight round balls, and then suddenly they shifted into semi-transparent forms resembling the many statues all around the planet's surface.

With a shriek, they raised flashes of energy over their heads and threw them at us. We both dodged, and I hid in the corner while Aran ran forward with her weapons firing.

So these were the paranormal energy beings - ghosts, the hominids called them. Ghosts of Chozo that had once lived here. Curiouser and curiouser, I thought. Why are they attacking her, if she lived among them? Did she steal that technology? Ah, that must be it. She had been stealing the Others' resources as well. Now these remnants of Chozo wished to take revenge upon her as well.

One of the ghosts sighted me, and threw a flash of energy that grazed my right arm. I ran from my corner and it followed me, disappearing for a point and then popping up behind me. Then I felt an extraordinary stimulus - pain, extreme pain, as it hit me with its flash of energy.

I lay on the floor, my nervous system momentarily overloaded, and marveled that a mere remnant could create such an effect upon me. I saw the ghost raise its hands above me for a final strike…

And then it staggered back as it received fire from Aran's weapons. I staggered to my feet and realized that I had momentarily lost my sense of hearing when I suddenly heard her shouting, "…told you to move, idiot! 8411-B! Are you listening to me? Get behind me!"

I moved up against the wall with her in front of me. She fired a series of blasts at the remaining ghost, until finally it spread its arms in resignation and disappeared.

"Why did you just stand there?" She demanded, breathing hard from exertion. "I can't save your stupid bug butt every time you get in trouble."

"If I had been destroyed by the ghost, it merely would have meant that it is stronger than I. I have only limited fighting capabilities." I indicated the missile launcher on my shoulder. "The Others have attempted to fight the ghosts with no success. But even if I knew I would die, I wanted to see them. Before I came to this planet, I had no prior knowledge of such phenomenon outside of fictional hominid narratives."

"It's the damned Phazon," she muttered more to herself than to me. "It corrupted them, just like everything else on this planet. They're not the Chozo I once knew."

"Of course. I doubt you could have stolen your equipment from them if they were more powerful as whole beings."

"Well, I…what?! I didn't steal this, bug. They gave it to me." She made a movement as if to strike me across the head with her weapon, then changed her mind. "I don't want to hear you speaking ill of the Chozo again, you hear me? Next time it'll be a blast to the head."

I was surprised. "Why did they give it to you?"

"None of your business."

Silence. We seemed to be at a standoff. Then she turned away and sat down on one of the many large pieces of structure that had fallen from the roof at one point or another. She exhaled deeply.

"Do you require sustenance?" Perhaps the fight with the ghosts had taken up most of her energy.

"Wh-no. Why do you…" She stood again, and stared at me intensely. "You ask this stuff because you really don't know, do you? You're really not one of them."

"I would not ask a question if I knew the answer."

She pondered this for a while, then said, "8411-B is too long a name and too hard to say. From now on, you're Dr. B. Got it?"

"I require a new name?"

"Well, you're not one of them anymore, right? So why should you refer to yourself as one of many, just a number?"

I considered this. I had found my _I,_ so I was in a different state of being than when I was part of the Group. Therefore a different term of address made sense. Also, she had asked me to call her Samus. She was no longer the Hunter as far as I was concerned, as she did not hunt me. So it made logical sense for me to change my name as well.

"I accept, Samus. I am Dr. B."


	3. Chapter 3

I took a good look around the room while Samus recovered. Like most of the ruins we had traveled through, the ceiling had cracked and much of it lay on the floor. On one side, a series of small lights in a circular pattern gave off a blue essence, though they did not appear to have any specific use. Many species created things for aesthetic effect and I still did not understand this purpose yet. Behind us stood - or sat, rather - a giant Chozo statue. It must have been made of stronger material than the ruins themselves, for it showed little sign of wear compared to the ceiling and walls.

Sentient beings often used icons for worship. The Others had never worshiped anything but progress and power, so now I had a new mystery to explore. I felt a pleasant tingling in my brain as I pondered the statue before me. Sentient beings created things to worship for two reasons: to ask for things, and to pay respect to what they deemed important. The Chozo, as far as I knew, did not need to ask for anything. They seemed fairly self-sufficient until the Phazon meteor crash, and perhaps had no idols to turn to when they could not pull the poison from their planet. So it had to be a totem of respect.

The statue held its hands open, as if waiting for an offering. Some creatures, I knew, worshiped their dead as keepers of knowledge. The theory went that one had to give something to get something back. Out of curiosity to see what would happen, I picked up a rock and placed it in the statue's hands. I doubted I would get any Chozo knowledge for a rock, but one had to begin somewhere.

"What are you doing?" Samus demanded irritably as she stood and walked over to me.

I turned to her. "It wants something," I said. "But I don't know what."

She gave an exasperated sigh, picked up the rock, and threw it away. Then she jumped up the fallen bits of ceiling and landed on a small overhang that had three rounded holes drilled into the surface. I could not see well from where I was standing, but there was a flash of light and she dropped down next to me. To my surprise, sections of the floor turned over, exposing a gutter-like track.

Before I could ask what it was for, Samus climbed up onto the statue itself. I watched in delight as she shifted into ball form. Amazing! I had watched surveillance videos in our attempts to figure out how the Morph Ball technology worked, but never so clearly as this. She seemed to shrink down to a fraction of her size and I wondered how her fragile human organs could withstand such compression. When we had attempted it, all of the test subjects had crushed themselves.

But this mysterious room held still more surprises for me. The _statue itself_ began to move! I could not see any mechanics or source of energy. It leaned forward - almost bowing, it seemed, with its head in a respectful position below its hands, as if worshiping the little ball it now held. Then it actually _threw_ Samus, but not with the contempt that she had thrown the rock. Carefully, as if it was gently pushing her in a specific direction.

The Samus-ball rolled into the track and disappeared. I walked over to the gutter entrance, peering into a hole that appeared to go down into the floor and double back toward the statue. I waited for a bit, and could hear her footsteps underground behind me. "Samus?"

A little door opened beneath the statue, and the Samus-ball popped out. I marveled at the ease with which she shifted back to her hominid form. "Did you find something?" I asked.

"Yes," she said shortly. "Nothing you need to know about."

Her tone did not bother me. In such a short period of time I had seen such marvelous things! If only I had gained my _I_ sooner!

"Dr. B." She turned to look at me. "You were a member of the science team, correct? What were you studying?"

"The effects of Phazon on Metroids." I answered immediately.

"And what did you find?"

"The Metroids respond favorably to Phazon infusion," I said. "But at the time of your arrival, we had not yet found an appropriate method of infusion that did not lead to instability on their part. We had placed irradiated Metroids in quarantine, in the deeper sections of the mines."

She sighed. "Metroids are enough of a pain as they are." She looked squarely at me through her visor. "I know you have been trying to use them as weapons, but what is the point if you can't control them?"

I nodded in agreement. "Yes, I differ with the Others on the subject. It was one of the first things I asked you, remember? A parasite is useful to none but itself."

She fiddled with the buttons on her blaster weapon. "All right then. Are you willing to go back down to the mines with me, among the crazy Metroids and more of the Others?"

"Of course. In fact, I could be useful to you, as I have information on some of the modifications the Others have been making to themselves. They have been steadily building up their power ever since your presence was detected on this planet."

She paused and stared at me. I just waited for her to speak. "You don't know the meaning of fear, do you?" she asked with an odd shift in her voice.

I thought about this. "Fear is a self-preservation instinct," I said. "As one of the Others, I was part of a larger body…a body that could grow back limbs that it lost. As a sentient being, I realize that new experience is concurrent with risk. Fear would interfere with new experience. By nature I am curious, so I choose to explore."

She said nothing for a moment, then laughed. "Couldn't have said it better myself. All right, Dr. B, let's go."

--

We dived back down into areas I was already familiar with. Until we reached the Metroid quarantine, I would have no new things to ponder, so I mulled over things I had already seen. Samus used her Morph Ball technology several times. No matter how many times I saw it, I could not figure out how a hominid could pull something like that off.

Unfortunately, news of my defection had reached Central Command, so now I had to hold my own when Samus fought the Others. Luckily she had already figured out how to fight some of the soldiers we had created specifically to battle her.

"Why did you color-code your fighters?" she demanded. She had a hard time telling normal Pirates apart, and had accidentally struck me more than once. But several of the modified ones, which had been created by reverse-engineering her own technology, she picked off easily. "It's stupid. I can tell what weapon to use the second I see them."

"That team's communications indicated that the coding was for their own purposes," I informed her. I felt a twinge of irritation whenever she said "your", as if I were still one of the Others. I needed a way to further distance myself from them. "They likely would have hidden or removed the colors, but you attacked too quickly."

"You said that you were making lots of different fighters."

"Yes. We will come across storage of the Elite fighters soon, so you will need to be careful." In the room we had entered there were some of the red crystals from the lava caverns, which had a low melting point and held a little Phazon, not enough to be dangerous. The blasts from our weaponry had hit one and rendered it in a semi-solid state.

I accessed my memory archives, searching for some symbol that hominids used to indicate lack of aggression. Finally I found one, and using the crystal drippings, sketched it on the back of my head.

I heard her step behind me. "What is that supposed to be?"

"Please clarify." She had a habit of pointing in vague directions while asking that question. I never knew if she was indicating a terminal, or the entries on it, or something else entirely.

"That on your head." She indicated the symbol I had just drawn: A circle, with a half-circle that had the ends pointing upward, and two dots over it.

I did not want to accuse her of firing at me, so I made my answer as vague as possible. "Visual recognition aid, to minimize your margin of targeting error."

She burst into laughter. "You drew a smiley face on your head?!" She seemed overcome. "Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look?"

I turned around to look at her. "This symbol indicates lack of hostility among hominids, correct?"

Samus fought to keep herself under control. "Where did you even find that?"

"Memory archives, interrogation of hominids during activity on planet K2-L."

Her manner changed so fast I did not realize it until she was standing over me, grinding one foot into my abdomen, her blaster charged and shoved into my face. I smelled plasma. She was shouting, nearly screaming. "I asked you a question, bug! _Were you involved in the raid on planet K2-L?!_"

"No," I managed to say, despite the weight on my abdomen. "I was on sentry duty on our ship during that mission. They…we…have access to all others' past information, remember?"

She stepped off me, but kept her weapon trained on my head. "If I find out you're lying…" Her breathing and pulse had rocketed up again, her eyes slightly unfocused.

"I do not lie. There is no need." This was true for the Others as well. I was not entirely sure we could. I stood and said, "Please forgive my directness. It should have occurred to me that you would not want details on our strikes against your fellow hominids."

Slowly, she brought down her weapon, her breathing starting to return to normal. "Listen, bug. I don't ever want to hear you mention K2-L again. Understand?"

"Understood. No mention of K2-L, and no negative interpretations of the Chozo." I glanced from her to a reflective surface in one of the test subject tubes. The symbol I had drawn had smeared ever so slightly.

She looked at it and then to me. "You really don't know…" She exhaled deeply, pressing one hand to her visor in an involuntary gesture. "I'm sorry, Dr. B. Let's move on, all right?"

I nodded. I had learned something new: She used the term "bug" when displeased with me, and "Dr. B" when she was not. It was a good indicator of her volatile hominid moods.

"All right. Let's go." She led and I followed.

I could not speak about K2-L, but the information I had accessed in my brain had brought up some interesting questions. Samus had many hominid qualities - she recognized the odd symbol immediately - and she had reacted with anger when I mentioned interrogation of other hominids. She used involuntary gestures that made no sense for someone in a protective exoskeleton.

And yet, I could not shake the puzzlement I held over the Morph Ball. It was Chozo technology, she said. She immediately knew how to use the Chozo statue that had apparently been built simply for the purpose of throwing someone in Morph Ball form. She had lived with them a time, she said, but I couldn't help wondering if, perhaps, she had undergone some kind of metamorphosis.

There were other bioforms that used mutation technology besides us, after all. The hominids themselves had dabbled in it for a while in the past, then suddenly stopped for reasons we had never been able to determine. I had no idea if the Chozo had done so, but since it was so widely available, it was certainly possible.

For what purpose had the Chozo given her this technology? Why had they chosen her, a hominid, and not one of their own? How did she end up among them in the first place? The armored suit she wore was a trademark of her position as the Hunter, so she could not have played the same role she did now.

Perhaps this was why the Others had never been able to eliminate the Hunter. They always focused on her present form, whereas there was something more to her. Something that had built her _I. Her driving force that had given her the strength she had._

_I wondered what it was._


	4. Chapter 4

As curious as I was about Samus' _I_, her volatility made me realize how careful I had to be in my investigations. Hominids, I remembered, kept a distinction between "public", meaning around others, and "private", meaning among themselves. Revealing private things involved emotion. There was no "private" in our society. The secrets hominids and most other sentient species kept from each other - their personal resources, their reproductive liaisons, all the things that gave them their individuality - were a foreign concept to us. Or, rather, to the Others.

I could keep private thoughts now, things I would not reveal either to Samus or to the Others, my former allies. Thoughts about how I would draw information out of Samus, regarding her _I_. And once she gave me this information, I would keep it to myself.

Most of the information she had given me, she had dropped by accident. Often it involved threats or something painful on my part. Perhaps I could ask general questions and make inferences based on her replies. I thought for a long time but could not come up with anything appropriate.

Strangely enough, it was Samus who started this conversation, albeit without intending to do so. As we entered the Elite Research wing of the mines, two of the Science Team attacked us and were easily dispatched by Samus. She stared at the huge Elite still forming in its stasis container and scanned the status screen in front of it. "Elite Pirate?" she asked no one in particular, then looked at me. "What are you?"

"I am Dr. B. Remember?"

"No, I mean what kind of Space Pirate are you?"

"I am part of Science Team."

"Doesn't your species have a name for itself? Surely you don't call yourselves 'Space Pirates'?"

I considered this. "I do not believe so. When I was one of the Others, there was only Us, and then all the other species of the universe. We were Us, and no other bioforms mattered."

This seemed to satisfy her, and she climbed the stairway to the next section of that room, where a series of the color-coded Others attacked us. She took the purple ones, I took the yellow one. She paused for a moment after that, then said to me, "I guess if you keep changing your forms, you can't really pin down a name for yourselves, can you?" The Elite Pirate seemed to intrigue her, for she descended again to examine it further.

I found a breach in her logic. "You are a hominid, but you do not associate with other hominids. You do not act like them, or speak like them. So how can you say you are one of them?"

She laughed softly, a relief to me, for I was afraid I'd offended her again. "I guess I've lived an unusual life. Most humans have a place where they live, when they are not traveling, but I don't. I guess if I did, I would define myself by saying where I was from."

"I and the Others are the same." She scowled at this, so I took the thought further. "I was created in Pod 64 of the 137th Generation on Zebes. So I would say I was from Zebes. Where are you from?"

She paused. "I guess you could say I am from Zebes also."

This did not make any sense to me, but I had already become so attuned to her moods that I could sense I was treading on dangerous territory. I had to proceed carefully. "Please forgive my ignorance, but it is my understanding that in the immature phase, hominids must be cared for by other hominids for a period of 18 years. I do not have any record of hominids participating in cloning or seeding in synthetic containers near Zebes, due to what hominids term 'ethical issues'."

She stood very still, and her voice came strained. "Hominids can be raised by surrogates," she said, then turned and unleashed fire on the Elite Pirate's container. I stepped back hurriedly, sensing that she had imposed her anger on this other creature instead so she would not hurt me. I respectfully stayed out of her way as she battled the half-finished experiment, which lumbered toward her with a vague determination, the hatred of the Hunter that had been programmed into all of the Others.

In the middle of it, I noticed a brownish gelatinous substance leaking from the container. Elite rations! I had taken in very little sustenance in the past few cycles and fell upon it eagerly.

Samus walked up to me after defeating the creature with an air of amusement, her anger sated by the destruction of the half-finished Elite which lay smoking in the corner. "You like that slop?"

I raised my head, and she laughed at the sight of the substance dripping from my mandibles. "Elite rations are full of nutrients. They are a good substitute sustenance for many carbon-based organisms. You should try some."

She laughed, then turned serious. "Dr. B, you said that even though your species is a collective, they don't know anything you find until you tell them, correct? You don't share minds, right?"

I nodded. "We communicate by speech and by communication logs, which you also have used to determine our activities."

"Good." Then, to my astonishment, she took off her helmet and scooped up a handful of the bubbling material.

I must admit I did not ever think about what kind of hominid the Hunter was. None of us had ever seen her face - or, at least, any who had, had not lived to tell about it. I expected her to appear fearsome. But she had a smooth, light face, and light hair that hominids call "blonde". She did not look threatening at all. But that was not what startled me.

"This atmosphere is hostile to hominids!" I exclaimed. "You do not feel any ill effects?"

"Blech!" She made a sound of disgust. "That stuff tastes nasty." Then she gave me a strange little smile before putting her helmet back on. "In case you haven't guessed, I'm not an ordinary human."

I must have looked foolish, for she laughed at me and said, "C'mon, Dr. B. If there's more of those things, I need to get rid of them as soon as possible."

That brought me back to what we were doing. "One moment." I walked over to the expired Elite and began picking at its exoskeleton. I found its missile launcher, of better quality than mine, had been relatively untouched; so I took it. I also pulled one of its protective plates from its stomach and attached it to my back as a makeshift shield. Through all of this, Samus watched with curiosity, but said nothing.

Samus said that a map she had stolen indicated that there was a door above us, hidden by rock; remarkably, she was right. She blasted a hole with one of our mining guns and we descended down a narrow tube.

It was not long before we stumbled upon a cluster of modified Others, all guarding more of the Elites. She methodically picked off the Others and then blew open the Elite's holding chambers, blasting the half-finished creations apart as well. Then she went back to examining the scientists' logs, just as she had done when I had first met her.

One of the Elites had been equipped with infrared vision. As I attempted to attach it to my visual sensors, I heard Samus make a short laugh over one of the scientists' logs. I walked over to investigate. It merely said, "Death to the Hunter! Death to all who oppose us!"

"Is this the propaganda wing of Space Pirate forces?" I could tell from her question that it was not a serious one, and it reminded me of another question.

"Why do you hunt the Others?" It was such a basic question, I wondered why no one had never asked it. But like the Pirate who had left that message, the Others did not care why they met with opposition; they only sought to eliminate it. Perhaps beings without an _I_ never ask why.

"I received orders from the Federation." The subject did not seem to interest her.

It puzzled me, though. The Federation did not work like the Others, but it was still a large group of bioforms with centralized command. I found it hard to believe that Samus took orders from anyone. "You belong to the Federation?"

"No, not really. I mean, I worked with them a while back, but…just bounty hunting now."

"Hunting bounty? Isn't that what the Others do?"

"No!" She turned back toward me with an air of exasperation, as if explaining this to a pupa. "Not that kind of bounty. There are certain missions that even the Marines don't want to take. So the Federations offer the missions to specialists for extra pay."

"Pay?"

"Money, currency. Um…extra rations."

"So you hunt the Others for extra rations?"

"Aaargh!" Despite this exclamation of irritation she did not appear inclined to injure me again. She put her hand to her head. "What makes you think I have to explain myself to you?"

"Nothing," I said simply. "I merely ask because I wish to understand why I have an _I_."

She stopped then, and watched me for a long time. I said nothing, not at all interested in getting blasted. When Samus spoke again, she had an odd tone to her voice that I could not interpret, but it was definitely not hostile. "I'm not really part of the Federation. But we have the same goal - to eliminate all of the Sp- the Others."

"Because the Federation wants supremacy over the galaxy?"

"Wh-no! Because _you_, I mean the Others, the Others are a filthy menace! Look at this!" She gestured at the walls, the floor, the dead Elites. "Look at all of this! You've fouled Tallon IV with your presence, spreading Phazon everywhere, and then of course there's those damned Metroids! Why couldn't you just leave them where they belonged?!"

She paused to catch her breath, as if unused to speaking more than a few words at a time. I stared around as she had asked me to do, but could not find the source of her ire. "I don't understand. When the Others discovered the Metroids, they found them useful. Useful things should be used, yes? And things that are not useful should be eliminated, no? The Chozo ruins are not useful, as the Chozo are extinct, so…"

"_What did I say about the Chozo?!_"

"That I should not say anything negative. But it is a fact that they are extinct, yes? This is negative? All things become extinct eventually."

Samus turned her back on me slowly, as if it took her great effort not to strike me, and vented her anger on the dead bodies until there was nothing left. Then she took several deep, slow breaths, until her heart rate returned to normal. "Dr. B."

"Yes?"

"Maybe it's better if we split ways. I'd rather be alone."

"Why?"

She made another irritated noise. "Look, I just work better alone. I can't handle having someone around asking me questions all the time. And I don't want to worry about someone getting hurt under my watch."

I was surprised. "You fear I would be injured?"

She stared at me. "Isn't that generally what happens when you work as a group? Don't the Others look out for each other?"

I shook my head. "We are responsible for our own welfare. We must protect the Group as a whole, but other than that…no."

"Aren't your commanders responsible for those serving under them?"

"No." I thought for a moment. "Is that how the Federation works? I've heard reports of higher-ranking individuals sacrificing themselves for the sake of those in their ranks. It seemed illogical to us…why would the stronger and more capable let themselves be destroyed for the sake of those weaker than them?"

She stood in silence so long I wondered if she had heard me. When I began to ask again, she cut me off. "Yes, they've done that. They depend on their commander to look after them. It's…a dual relationship."

"But what good does it do to have lost a strong unit to save a weaker one? It seems counterproductive."

"Yes…yes, it does, doesn't it?" She spoke slowly, then gave a morbid little laugh that had no humor in it at all. I merely waited, my knowledge of hominid reason and emotion completely exhausted. "Ah…Dr. B."

"Yes?"

"You really wish to come with me, just to continue your examinations of 'the _I'?"_

"Yes. Did I not say so before?" I paused, wondering why I puzzled her so. "This is the most fascinating study I have ever made. Risk is irrelevant, and you are a valuable source of information."

"Whatever." It was an offhand remark, yet I could feel her mood lighten. "Just remember, I'm not responsible for you, all right?"

"I would not presume that in the first place."

She laughed again, this time with a more genuine sound. I followed her through a couple more rooms, down into the very bowels of the mines. We entered a large control station filled with Others, and I experimented with the missiles I had taken from the Elite. After eliminating all the threats, Samus turned her attention to the control panels. I walked on a little further ahead, sensing a force field nearby.

The entrance to the mines. A giant purple field stood between us and huge mounds of Phazon ore. Not to mention dozens of angry mutated Metroids, stuffed down here because they did not respond to cold containment.

"Oops," I heard Samus say.

Suddenly the field flickered and died. The enormous chamber echoed with eager hunting cries.


	5. Chapter 5

I heard her yell out a warning, but it was irrelevant. My entire existence had been dedicated to studying Metroids. I had fought them off several times, either while examining or moving them. I had felt the sting of their searching tentacles more than once. They ate anything living, and they had no _I_. It was a dangerous combination. But I was used to it.

I fired off a missile at one that had been hovering just on the other end of the force field, as if it had been watching the Others and determining which it would like to eat first. The missiles given to the Elites worked well; I only needed two to dispatch it. But I counted at least ten of them, and they do not school or flock; Metroids are solitary creatures and venture near each other only to breed and to fight over a kill. I could only target one at a time.

Samus launched her missiles as well, backhanding one that came too close. The injured creature made an angry screech and swooped in on her, attaching itself to her head. She curled into a ball and shook it off with a little electric bomb. The Metroid squealed in pain and anger, then came after me.

I had already killed two more when I saw the injured one make a beeline for my face. I could not shift my form as Samus did, but she had given me an idea. The Elites' armored exoskeletons had been designed to withstand piercing shrapnel blasts. I decided to test its strength.

Curling into a little ball, I protected my head with my arms, so that only the exoskeleton shield I had taken was exposed. Metroids hunt by sensing heat and movement; the Elite exoskeleton had been designed to hide any signs of body temperature, both as protection against Metroids and heat-sensor gear that our enemies could procure.

I felt the small creature approach, hunting for the food it knew must be near. It made little squeaks of frustration, and ran its claws along the shield. It tapped, rubbed, and bounced, trying to get a reaction or find a weak spot. Finally, it tapped along my back in a walking motion, searching for any crack.

Its claws floundered near the edge of the shield. I remained very still, even though it began prying at the underside. It made happy chirps, certain now that it was close to its next meal. I could sense hunger, a driving, wild hunger, desperate for something other than Phazon to eat.

I felt soft tissue on the back of my neck. The Metroid made a burbling cry of triumph and wrapped its claws around my neck in a choking grip, forcing back the shield and sending a white-hot sensation of intense pain through my body as it tapped into my life force. I clawed at its talons and rammed into the wall, trying to force it off.

It exploded, showering me with slimy biomatter. I turned to see Samus standing next to me. "All right?" she asked.

I nodded. "The material we chose for the Elites' armor works well, but I only have enough to cover my back."

She pushed my shoulder gently to the side in order to get a better look, suddenly interested. "Metroids can't get through this stuff?"

"No, not if the entire body is covered. But I have only a piece."

"Well, they're gone now, so let's move on."

I hesitated. It took me a moment to realize why. Before I gained my _I_, pain had mattered less. Though I did not mind if pain was inflicted on me by something new, the prospect of meeting more Metroids did not appeal to me at all. Before, I only did my duty and ignored the pain. But now that I had an _I_, my _I_ protested against feeling that particular stimulus again.

"Something wrong?" Samus asked.

I struggled to verbalize thought. "I thought gaining my _I_ would make me stronger, but I seem to have gained a weakness. I wish to avoid pain." I looked at her. "You have a strong _I_. Do you feel pain?"

"Of course I do. But the suit helps protect me. I could last a lot longer if I had one of those things attached to me than you would." Her eyes crinkled, a sign of amusement. "If you don't want to feel pain, you need to become a better shot." She became serious again. "Besides, it's part of the instinct of self-preservation. You don't have to bear pain for the sake of the Group anymore. You can fight, or run, if it becomes too much. Now come on, something tells me there's going to be a lot more fighting to do."

Samus turned and walked a few steps, then stopped. A yawning chasm of raw Phazon ore lay before us. I had already started crawling up the wall when I remembered: The Hunter could not climb. That was one of the things we had discovered during the assault on Zebes, one of her weaknesses. But I had forgotten because I no longer thought of her as the Hunter.

"Do you need assistance?" I asked. "I could carry you on my back, if you're not too heavy."

She shook her head. "Nah, I found my own way over." To my surprise she leaped up upon one of the grotesquely mutated fungi and then jumped into thin air. Then she stood, suspended, not moving her muscles but yet hovering in midair.

"How are you doing that?" The Hunter's abilities never ceased to amaze.

She laughed. "It's not me, I found a visual addition to my suit with X-ray abilities. There's a platform here…you just can't see it."

"You found it?"

"Yes, in the Ruins area." She jumped onto another invisible platform and then hopped lightly to the ground despite her metal covering.

"I'm surprised the Others would have stored it there. They do not like the Ruins." She watched me cross the ceiling upside-down with much interest. All the Others had been taught how to climb, to find footholds and handholds in cracks in the rock, to make new ones with our slicing arm if necessary.

"It's Chozo technology, not Space Pirate."

"Then the Others continue to underestimate the knowledge of the Chozo," I deduced, landing lightly on the ground beside her.

She chuckled softly. "Oh, you have no idea."

The next room contained more Metroids, but much fewer of them, so I could stand my own ground without any help from Samus.

Their devouring hunger needled at my brain. It was not mere need for sustenance. Indeed, it seemed to be connected to the fact that they had nothing but Phazon to feed on. Theoretically, they could survive on it, but they were not meant to do so. It kept them constantly on the edge of existence. It reminded me of the desperate antics of the Hunter just before I had captured her, when she had been besieged while low on energy. Self-preservation, I thought to myself.

Sensing this self-preservation instinct in others brought me to wonder what it was like to experience it. It seemed unpleasant even to view it within another creature…what would it be like for me? I felt a strong opposition to such an event.

Was this…fear?

Another weakness of the _I _! Why was I gaining only weaknesses, not strengths? How frustrating!

"Samus," I asked, "Do you feel fear?"

She turned to me, halfway finished in dispatching a Metroid, and stared. Then she went back to what she was doing. "Of course I do, but don't tell the Others I said that."

"I would not tell them anything."

"I don't think you would, but I don't want to give them any ideas."

"So fear _is_ a weakness."

She attempted to jump from one fungi to another, then cursed when she missed. "Fear is like pain, Dr. B. A little bit keeps you alive. Too much will kill you."

"How do I know how much is too much?"

"When it interferes with what you're doing."

"How do I stop it?"

She paused for a moment to think. "It's been a while since I had to…" Her voice trailed off. I waited patently for her to finish. It took several minutes. "I suppose, you think about what you will do when you get out of that situation. You don't think about death. You only think about surviving."

"But what if death is inevitable?"

"You still don't think about it," she stated firmly. "There's been many times when my death should have been inevitable, and I'm still here, aren't I?" When I nodded, she said, "Let's not talk about death, huh? Not in a place like this. It gives me the creeps."

"Are the creeps detrimental to survival?"

"Yes. Now be quiet and let's go."

--

Finally we reached the end of the mines. I felt much better after getting away from the Phazon. It may have given me my _I_, but it also made me feel ill. Which slowed my reactions. Detrimental to survival.

I looked around the room we had entered. There was a panel before me, and I eagerly attempted to access it, but of course I had been locked out as a traitor.

Samus hacked it for me. The entry stated that they had neared completion on something called an 'Omega Pirate'. "I am surprised; I had not heard anything about this," I told her. "If this was kept secret, it must have been important, or I would have heard something at least. Though perhaps Central Command issued a blanket ban on military information when the Others sensed your presence."

I didn't mention that Central Command had set up several projects to increase our fighting ability since the fall of Zebes. Ridley had been resurrected, and that had likely strengthened his _I_. It would not surprise me to find that the Omega Pirate had been kept here for the sole purpose of acting as sentinel in case the Hunter should return. Likely its creators were eager to test it out on her.

"Well, no sense hanging around here," she said, and walked quickly up a ramp to the second level.

"You must be careful," I warned. "You likely have never fought something like this before."

She glanced over her shoulder. "Well, yes, but it's not like that has never happened before." She laughed softly. "If I didn't know better, I would say you're worried about me."

I considered that as I followed her. Concern for another creature's well-being? That certainly was not a characteristic of the Others. But it just seemed logical to make sure we were both on guard, in facing something neither of us had ever seen.

We entered an enormous cavern-like room, with Phazon ore scattered about as if some giant hand had been examining it and then left it there. I looked cautiously around for any sign of the Others. But there was only one bio-form in the room, on the opposite side. A huge creature, certainly bigger than any of the Others I had ever seen. It slept silently in its stasis chamber until we approached. Then its eyes snapped open and it fixed its stare on Samus. It made an all-too-familiar war cry, and did not bother to even open the door of its chamber, but rather smashed its way out in its eagerness to get at her.

Samus fired a series of shots at its head, but they bounced off. She retreated, firing from both sides as it chased her. She tried missiles, then a purplish energy wave, but neither one seemed to have much effect on it. As it pursued her, I pursued it, hoping to make an observation that would help her fight. She cursed loudly as it held up one hand, holding within it something that absorbed her cannon's fire, then made a sharp cry of pain as it threw down a crackling wave of energy.

I realized that it had Phazon stuck in its exoskeleton, and the material seemed to have an odd effect on her weaponry. "Samus!" I called out to her. "Try hitting the ore embedded in it!"

She aimed and fired, the creature roaring in anger as the ore in one of its shoulders shattered. Samus fired several more missiles in quick succession, knocking out the chunks of mineral. As she hit the last one, I expected the Omega Pirate to collapse; but it disappeared!

She stared around the room, uncertain. "Is it defeated?" I asked, but the Omega answered my question when I saw Samus rise suddenly in the air, then go flying against the wall.

I ran toward her. "Are you all right?"

She stumbled to her feet and touched her visor briefly, just as she had when she found the invisible platforms. "Get back, Dr. B! You can't see it!" She began firing at a point just behind me. I dodged out of the way, just in time, for a wave of purplish energy snaked out from nowhere and bit at my ankles.

Something hit my shoulder, hard, and I made a startled glance to my left. Two of the Others emerged from a doorway near the ceiling. "8144-B! Face your punishment, traitor!"

I did not answer. There was no point in explaining my mission to a bio-form without an _I_. I fired missiles at both of them, and they fell quickly.

"Forget the traitor! The Hunter is our target!" I turned to see more of the Others, many more. Samus still pursued the Omega Pirate, the hulking creature winking in and out of the visible spectrum as it sought more Phazon to cover itself. I positioned myself between her and the Others, attempting to keep the two groups apart.

I fired several missiles, yet could not hit all of them. One hit me twice with an energy beam, and I stumbled backward. As it closed in I raised my fighting arm and brought it down in a clean sweep, slicing off the Other's head. I stood over the Other's corpse, brandishing my fighting arm and sending missiles after the remaining Others. They howled in rage, condemning me, offering no shortage of vivid pictures of the sentence I would receive if I allowed myself to be captured.

I had no intention of doing so. In the fight, I realized I would never give up my _I_. My life, perhaps, if it were inevitable. I cannot not explain how it suddenly became so important to me. All I knew was that it was somehow helping cut down these Others that should have killed me on the first shot. Aside from the power, I also wanted the awareness. The knowledge that I was no longer one of them. That my _I _was in control of my life, not the Others.

I shot down the last one, and then leaned so far over that I placed my hand on the ground, knees bent. I had been injured, but I turned my head back toward Samus to see if I could assist her. She fired another round of missiles at the Omega, and I heard dissonant yells; triumph from Samus, and a death cry from the Omega.

The mammoth creature fell on top of her in its death throes, crushing her.

"Samus!" I moved as quickly as I could, to try and push the creature off her, but I could not go too close; the Phazon burned me, beat me back as if by physical force. "Samus?"

To my great surprise, the Omega seemed to melt, and then reform around her. She jumped to her feet, slapping at her suit as if to wipe the substance off. She stared down at herself, apparently unharmed. "Are you all right?"

"Just a moment," she said tersely. "I'm running a scan…no interference with my suit…no leakage of Phazon into the suit…it seems…fine…"

I moved closer, but not too close; she stood essentially covered in Phazon. "It did not injure you?"

"No…" Suddenly she laughed. Not with mirth like before, but a savage, barking laugh. She stepped over to a pile of ore and lifted up a small rock, tossing it up and down in her hand. "I can touch it! I can go through areas covered in Phazon now…it can't hurt me!"

She laughed some more, and then appeared to speak to herself, not to me. "Finally, I can clean out this whole planet…exterminate all those damned bugs. I'll kill them all this time."

"Samus?"

Her head jerked up, and her voice resumed its normal tone. "Oh, Dr. B…you're hurt. Let's find something to fix you up, all right?"

"Are you injured?"

"Yeah, I got beat up a little bit. No worse than normal. Come on, let's find something for both our injuries."

"One moment." I stooped over the remains of the Omega Pirate, and retrieved a visual apparatus, or half of one at least. I connected it to my eye structure, and noted with satisfaction that at least one eye now had infrared vision. I picked at its exoskeleton, but it was too full of Phazon holes to be of much use to me.

"All right. I am ready."

--

Author's Notes: I just wanted to extend a big THANK YOU to everyone who has read and reviewed so far. I'm going to really mix things up in the next chapter, so stay tuned!


	6. Chapter 6

"Samus?" I could hear her rolling around in the small Phazon-lined passage, which I could not enter even if I had her morph ball abilities. After a few minutes she finally emerged, and when she stood up I could see something in her hand. "A Chozo artifact?"

She nodded. "I found a temple in greenery near the ruins. These artifacts supposedly open a door to the deepest part of the crater formed by the meteorite that caused all this mess, that brought the Phazon that's poisoning the planet."

"The Metroid Prime is there," I warned. "You have read this in the Others' logs, correct? It has killed many of the Others and taken their weapons. Will you go there to fight it?"

"Yes. Can't have something like that running around the planet, can we? Besides," she added, a little bit of puzzlement in her voice, "the Others seem to want to use it for something. They can't even handle normal Metroids, so who knows what will happen if they transport that thing to another planet. Or worse, bring more Metroids down there and make more."

"I will come," I stated firmly. "I wish to see the Metroid Prime. I have studied Metroids my entire existence, and I had participated in numerous Phazon studies on Metroids. But I am not a Commando, so I was not allowed to enter that part of the crater." I felt another strange feeling, anger that I had not been allowed to study something that interested me. My _I_ was growing, and its progress pleased me.

"Well, just remember, I can't help you if we both get into trouble…and we will, if that thing's as dangerous as you say." I nodded in agreement.

We made our way back to the overworld, our progress unusually unimpeded. The destruction of the Omega Pirate, and subsequent transfer of power to the Hunter, must have set the Others back a great deal. I doubted very much that they would stop their attacks on us, but clearly they seemed to be waiting for a new opportunity. Maybe they would simply wait and see if the Metroid Prime could kill her.

When we reached the Ruins, Samus walked quickly, as if in a hurry to get to the Temple. "Samus," I asked with a bit of trepidation, as I had no idea how she would react to this question, if it was appropriate for a subordinate to ask such a question. "Could we travel at a slower speed? The Others avoid the Ruins, and since my _I_ awakened, I have been curious about them."

"Oh?" She seemed puzzled, yet pleased. "I don't see why not. There's not much here now, though. The last Chozo died some years ago."

"There was a small Chozo colony on Zebes, I remember. Was that the one you lived with? I saw them when…" I stopped, remembering I was not allowed to speak about K2-L; and by proxy, the Chozo that had broken up the remains of our raid there.

She waited for a while for me to finish my sentence, then said, "Yes."

I turned to look at the carvings on one of the walls. "What does it say?" I asked, pointing to the script. I had heard a lot more _Dr. B_ and much less _bug_, so I assumed that her mood was improving.

She spoke in slight pauses, as if translating a language she had not used in a long time. "Ah…it says, 'The Hatchling, filled with wrath, will return and disperse the Great Poison'."

I considered all those words in various combinations, then asked, "What does it mean?"

She shrugged. "The Chozo liked to speak like that a lot. Could never get a straight answer out of 'em." She spoke in an offhand, almost disparaging manner, but something about her stance told me that she did not believe this herself. Hominids were confusing.

Suddenly the ground around us exploded in four different places, startling both of us and nearly deafening me. Great cracks rent the temple stone, and we both scrambled to the sides as giant boulders fell down into the caverns beneath. I heard a yell behind me and turned to see Samus disappear into the yawning chasm. I could do nothing until the ground around us settled, throwing dust into my eyes and interfering with my respiration.

"Samus?" I called, picking my way over the fallen stone. "Are you all right?"

I heard cursing, which told me she was alive at least. "I'm not hurt, Dr. B, but I'm pinned down." Looking over the rim of the chasm, I could see her lying down at the bottom of a narrow hole, much of her obscured by the heavy rock.

I aimed my missile launcher. "I will break up the stone on top of you, then lift it off."

"No!" She raised her blaster arm to wave me off. "The stone here is already weakened. You'll risk setting off another rock fall, or worse, burying me under. I can use my cannon, but not from this angle. One moment…" She pulled off her helmet and wiggled out of the suit. I could see she wore a light blue fabric over her entire body except for her hands. She pulled the cannon off the suit and put it on her arm, intending to break up the rock into small pieces with the blaster.

Just then I heard the unmistakable roar of the jet packs used by the Others. I glanced up to see no less than ten of them, hovering near and closing in quickly.

The rockfall had not been natural. They had planted explosives in hopes of trapping the Hunter.

I aimed my missile launcher and started firing. "Samus! The Others are here!"

She responded with a series of rounds from her blaster cannon. I took down two of them, and then the rest were upon us. One fired its own missiles at me, which I dodged by rolling to the right; but in doing that, I left Samus unguarded. All but two crammed into the small opening, all of them getting blaster fire in the face. One of them caught a blast on its jet pack and careened off toward the left in a corkscrew pattern, smashing into the rock wall to its death.

The two Others circled me, dodging my fire. I felt one shot, then another one pierce my exoskeleton. "Surrender, traitor!" one demanded. "Give us any information you learned about the Hunter, and Central Command might reward you with a quick death!"

"I do not answer to anyone without an _I_," I said, and returned fire.

"Your words have no logic. This one has Phazon Madness," said the other. "He is useless to us. Kill him!"

I struck one in the face and it screamed, blinded, then attempted to ram into me in a last-ditch attempt to kill me. I dodged to the side but felt shrapnel embed itself in the joint between my upper and lower leg. The other one had turned its attention to Samus, who still fired numerous shots from her small enclosure. It hovered low, so I leaped upon its back and with my weapon hand, sliced off its head.

Its arms jerked in the throes of death, sending the jet pack careening wildly into the air. Air and ground and stone all blended together as I went sailing into the air, then suddenly I smashed into hard stone and lost consciousness.

--

When I regained consciousness, I immediately felt great pain. Some came from my head, and some came from the damage to my exoskeleton from the Others' weapons. At first I could not remember what I was doing there. Then my memories returned, much like a computer suddenly coming back online. I rose to my feet, but could hear nothing. Looking around, I could see I had landed near the top of the Ruins. I picked my way back down to the chasm.

Samus was not there.

I climbed out of the hole and counted the bodies of the Others. Seven bodies, not counting the headless one that I could not find. I scrambled back down into the pit, trying to piece together what happened. Samus would not leave without killing all the Others, even if she decided she no longer wanted me to follow her.

I looked down at the place where her suit had been, and saw drops and smears of hemoglobin-based blood. Hominid blood. So she had been wounded. But her body was not there. Her suit was gone, presumably taken by the Others.

Samus had been taken alive.

I pondered this. Did the Others, too, wish to determine the nature of her _I _? Probably not likely, or they would not have attacked me as well. I knew they wanted her suit, but felt unsure what they would do to her. Did they wish to study her? Interrogate her? Conduct experiments on her?

I needed access to the Others' logs to figure that out. But I could not hack into them without Samus' help.

I stood there for a very long time. I did not know what to do next. My _I _was still in its immature stage; I had only gotten along by following another _I_. So I sat down and attempted to think it through like any other logical problem, for instance when the Metroids in my lab had gotten loose many years ago, and I had discovered they did not like the cold.

I could surrender and end my life, as it was clear that I could go no further with an incomplete _I_.

I could find Ridley and attempt to reach some kind of parley, as he also had an _I_.

I could attempt to find Samus and free her from the Others.

The first option had no appeal to me. Though I could do very little myself, the thought of ending my life and my study of the _I_ seemed foolish. So that was out. The second option was not much better; I could attempt to offer Ridley some reason for my existence, but I knew already that it would be difficult. He would be suspicious of another _I_, because an _I _thinks for itself and I could not guarantee total subservience to him. It would be too much trouble for him to watch me.

So the only other option was to find Samus and her suit, and follow her as my fellow _I_. I could not be sure of how to do this, but at least I did not have to completely dismiss this option. It occurred to me that if the Others thought I was dead, and if the Hunter was in their custody, they might have loosened their restrictions on the reporting logs.

I stood and hurried toward the nearest outpost, in the Magmoor Caverns. It lay mostly unused ever since we began using Phazon as our power source instead of geothermal energy. There would be terminals there, but few of the Others. Luckily there were none when I arrived. I picked my way across the lava and hurried over to one of the terminals, and found that they had indeed opened up the terminals.

The Others had already written a great deal of material about the Hunter's capture, reaffirmations of their supremacy, and threats to the Galactic Federation. I skipped them. Finding a short statement about myself, I stopped my search to read it.

_Entity 8411-B has been terminated. Subject had been either coerced or actively assisting the Hunter. Subject was found to be suffering from Phazon Madness. No further action needs to be taken._

I should have been relieved that they believed me to be dead. Instead I felt anger, irrational anger. I had an _I_ ! This was not Phazon Madness! What about the Others that had been diagnosed with Phazon Madness? Had they gained an _I_ as well? Were the Others systematically eliminating any who demonstrated sentience? Or were they simply so stupid to not recognize sentience when they saw it? In any case, I was not ill, or insane. I was _Dr. B_. I was something greater than they could ever hope to be!

I abruptly broke off my internal tirade and searched again for my fellow _I_. First I found what they had done with her suit; it was being held in a lab in Phendrana Drifts, for further examination. But it had no mention of Samus there, so I kept looking.

Finally, I found her. She was being held in another lab at the exact opposite side of our settlement, in the Phazon Mines. _Subject will be held for scientific examination, to determine how a simple hominid has wrecked such havoc on our forces._

I read further, what they intended to do, what they intended to find out. Much of it had little scientific value; they only wished to give her pain, to give her fear, before they finally killed her.

This was unacceptable.

I would not allow harm to come to my fellow _I_. I do not remember how I came to this conclusion, and I will not pretend that it was rational. I can only assume that our _I_ had formed some kind of kinship. In any case, I would not allow my fellow _I_ to suffer pain and fear. I took note of the room where she was being held and quickly made my way toward it.

I surprised many Others on my way there. They thought all threats had been eliminated. The Hunter had been captured, after all. So they were not on their guard. Most I simply hit from behind with my missiles. A few had the ability to disappear from the visible spectrum and hide, but I used the visor fragment I had taken from the Omega Pirate, and the heat of their bodies betrayed them.

Finally, I reached the lab where Samus was being held. Obviously they did not think she was much of a threat without her suit; I encountered only one Elite, which I killed before it even knew what happened. I stepped through the door and found nearly the entire Science Team crowded around one of the dissection tables on the far corner of the room. I drew them away, then dispatched all of them easily.

I hurried to the dissection table. Luckily she had not been cut open yet. She was sedated, however, and the Science Team seemed to have attached every diagnostic wire, tube, and sensor that they possessed to her. It would take a while to untangle everything, to ensure that I did not hurt her further. She had taken some damage to her head, which they had repaired in the interest of further investigation. I could see several defensive wounds on her hands that the Others had not bothered to heal.

I shut off the anesthetic first. It would take her a very long time to regain consciousness, possibly longer than it would take to get her off the table. As I detached a series of sensors from her head, my fighting arm nicked the side of her face and dots of blood bubbled to the surface. I had forgotten how delicate hominids were. I tried to work slower, but I could already feel fear at the thought that the Others would come to check on Science Team's progress in the near future.

I glanced up at the diagnostic computer, and abruptly stopped what I was doing. The computer screen stated that Samus had a certain degree of Chozo DNA intertwined in her cells, containing chromosomes that strengthened parts of the body that dealt with temperature, oxygen processing and air pressure regulation.

Samus Aran was not entirely human.

It took a moment for this to register. She was not merely a hominid; the Chozo had at some point put this mutation in her body, much like the Others did with the creatures they examined. Did she know?

The Others must not know. I erased the information from the computer and worked faster, wrapping synthetic material around her arms as I pulled out the tubes that had been taking blood samples. I destroyed those as well, washing away the blood so that a DNA sample could not be taken. Finally, I had freed her from all of the diagnostic equipment.

Yet, I had another problem. Samus could survive certain environments without her suit, but I doubted that included the extreme heat of Magmoor Caverns and the extreme cold of Phendrana Drifts. She needed her suit, and I needed to get her to it, but I also had to keep her alive in the meantime. And that was not counting attacks from the Others.

I scanned the room for some kind of protective covering. My eye fell upon the shrouds we used for corpses of creatures that were irradiated or somehow otherwise unsafe to touch. They protected us from radiation, heat, and cold, so likely they could protect her from those things as well. Taking care not to cut her again, I placed her into the shroud and fastened it up to her face, so that she could breathe.

I knew little about hominid anatomy; I knew that they kept their most important organs, like the brain, heart, and lungs, protected by bone structures. However, some organs like the kidneys, stomach, intestines, and liver, did not have a protective bone structure. It was hard to tell what was protected and what was not, as she had a lot of soft tissue, especially in the chest area. I couldn't remember if this was where the kidneys were, so I could not carry her over my shoulder, for fear of crushing them. So I decided to carry her in my arms instead, even though this would make it harder for me to fight.

Once I had her properly situated, I ran out the door as quickly as possible, knowing I had precious little time before the Others realized something was wrong. They would not allow the Hunter to escape again.


	7. Chapter 7

I had two possible escape routes. One, the much shorter one, connected the Phazon Mines to Phendrana Drifts through Magmoor Caverns. Although it was short, it also led through a larger number of the Others' strongholds. The second, longer path wound through the Chozo Ruins and more than half the length of Phendrana Drifts. I decided to take this second path, theorizing that the Others would believe the Hunter would take the shortest path to her suit.

I entered a long shaftway, a sort of vent I suppose, pulling myself up the walls with my fighting arm and finding footholds in the space between metal sheets. Energy creatures buzzed around my head, giving off a scent somewhere between hydrocarbons and lightning. I let them wander at will, since they seemed to take no notice of me, but I certainly did not want any of them to touch me.

Once up at the top, I raced through a gas-filled room that hurt my eyes and made me choke. The spiky gas creatures that floated above me gave off more of this noxious substance and I scrambled to get out of the room, slipping slightly as I climbed up the sheer, curved metal wall and into the next room. It had been created as a passive security system to keep the Hunter and other creatures out, and reminded me that my task would get much harder once the Others realized she had escaped. Fear once again presented itself at the idea of my being hunted, and to tamp it down I focused on the task at hand. I paused only briefly to work free the bit of shrapnel that had embedded itself in my leg joint, for it pained me and impeded my progress.

After many side-doors, forgotten passageways, and natural rock cracks, I found myself at the top of the Mines, the crane that had transported out the first shipments of Phazon standing idle. I could see and hear some of the others milling about, their bodies and voices relaxed. I reasoned that if I carefully climbed over to the crane and used the stairway to get to the ground, I could get out of there without them seeing me.

I inched my way along the cliff top, staying out of the visual range of the Others and taking great care not to drop Samus. When I was about halfway across a shrieking call pierced the air and I froze. The idle Others suddenly rose to their feet or used their jet packs to get to the small control center in the crane. I could hear shrieks of rage echo throughout the quarry. Samus' absence had been discovered.

I was just debating whether I should climb down to the ground and make a run for it when I heard the roar of engines behind me and one of the Others flew just above my face. "Identify yourself!"

I dispatched it with a salvo of missiles. The noise and commotion brought the rest of them upon us, shrieking and firing their weapons. I do not know if they understood what I was carrying; they may have merely come after me for shooting one of them, a capital offence in itself. Crawling closer to the top of the rock formations, I fired at the flying ones, keeping the stone between me and the shots of those on the ground.

I reached one of the high walkways and jumped upon it, running toward the crane. I slashed at a flying attacker and it swerved too fast out of the way, losing control and hitting a container of explosives on the ground. The container ruptured and the subsequent explosion killed the Others on the ground, while I dispatched the last one with a missile.

I entered the crane's control station and discovered that I could access the logs, meaning that the Others had not yet determined correctly how the Hunter had been freed. I skimmed over the bulletin that had antagonized the Others in the quarry and made an entry of my own:

_Hunter sighted in quarry near entrance of Phazon Mines. Subject eliminated numerous soldiers and then returned to the Mines._

Doubtless the Others would wonder why she would go back the way she came, but it would buy us some time as they would not question the reports. Not until they realized it had been written by one with an _I_, that is. After that, I ransacked their small weapons cache for missiles to replace the ones I had used. I found three.

I picked Samus up from the floor where I had placed her and raced out of there as quickly as possible, knowing the Others would send reinforcements once they read that message. I scrambled down the rocky stairs and through a passage that led to the overworld, not pausing until I had reached the edges of the Chozo Ruins. Out of breath, I limped to the inside of a partially-covered room, one with many Chozo sculptures but no ghosts. It appeared to have once been a training ground of some kind, with numerous passages that went nowhere and could only be accessed with Morph Ball technology.

I set Samus down to catch my breath. Science Team drones are built to sprint short distances for quick skirmishes with intruders, but not for any kind of long-distance running. The body designed for me by the Others was weighing me down, even though I could defend myself better with the items I had picked up along the way.

I heard a muffled exclamation behind me, then a sudden shriek of fear and rage, along with the sound of the body bag's seal tearing open. I turned round to see Samus kicking free of the shroud, eyes wide.

"Are you all right?" I asked. I was completely unprepared for her reaction.

She reached for a weapon that had doubtless been confiscated upon her capture, then bent down, snatched a rock, and hurled it with surprising force at my left eye. Had she not still been somewhat unsteady from the sedative, she likely would have put the eye out. Her ability with even the most primitive of weapons was frightening.

She screamed something at me in her hominid tongue and I realized that she had no translation ability without her suit. "I am Dr. B," I said, and bent my head so that she could see the identifying mark I had made there. I braced for another rock, but it did not come. Looking up, I saw her staring around warily, running her hands along the marks in her blue clothing where I had pulled out the diagnostic equipment. She likely had been awake for at least part of the procedure.

Samus turned to me and asked a question. I could make a good guess as to what it was. "Your suit is in Phendrana Drifts," I told her, pointing in that direction. Then I pointed to the shroud. "I carried you because you were asleep and I feared the Others would come."

She regarded me blankly, giving the shroud a disgusted kick. I did not understand her behavior; it was clean. I picked it up, folded it (as she would probably change her mind once we reached Phendrana Drifts), and gestured for her to follow me. She did so, still rubbing her injured skin and casting wary looks around her.

I noticed a flock of Shriekbats sleeping in the entryway to the next room, and held up my hand to stop her. Undeterred, she hurled more rocks, hitting the creatures squarely in the head. At each turn, she would defend herself as best she could, then look to me to lead the way. Luckily the vast majority of the animals of the Tallon IV overworld were either vulnerable to simple stones or easy to avoid.

The door to the Phendrana Drifts elevator was open; luckily she had probably blasted the lock some time before this. Therefore I could open it without wasting any missiles. Once the door at the end of the elevator opened, she stepped forward, then hesitated as the frigid air blasted in our faces.

I held up the shroud. "This will keep you warm," I explained, even though I knew she would not understand the words I spoke. "Your hominid body is too fragile for this temperature." Technically, it was not good for me either, but I would have to stand around for a long time for my exoskeleton to crack in the cold. I was not going to sit and wait for that to happen.

She stared at the body bag and then at the frozen scene in front of her, her lips and the fingers of the arms she wrapped around herself already beginning to turn blue. With an irritated look, she held her hand out for the shroud. Stepping into it, she fastened it halfway up, then looked down at her feet and asked another question.

I realized she did not want to be carried, but there was no other option. I pointed to the shroud and held my hands in a cradling position, saying nothing when she protested. Finally she conceded and fastened it all the way up. I picked her up and it did not take her long to curl up inside it, trying to combat what cold that did penetrate the shroud with her own body heat.

The ground was covered in frozen precipitation. After a few steps I could see my tracks clearly behind me. Though the Others could not necessarily know they were mine, they would likely be suspicious of any tracks indicating one of them traveling alone. The Others never did anything alone.

I heard a series of snorts, from a large vertebrate creature. A huge figure rose from the white drifts, enormous crystals on its back. It took one look at me and let forth a blast of ice. I dodged and rolled, careful not to crush Samus. It chased me across the ruined room, and as I looked back I noticed that its floundering completely obscured my tracks. I led it back and forth a few times to ensure that none remained, then ducked through another door as it aimed another icy blast.

Looking up just in time to see sentry drones hovering above me, I fired at both of them and ran back and forth in the small enclosure, dodging their fire as best I could. I before dispatching them, I had been hit twice. I hoped that I would come across no more sentry drones, as they were harder to dodge than the Others.

After that, we traveled across the Drifts with little trouble. We met none of the Others for a long while; I had been right in assuming they would guard the shorter path. Aside from the great ice-breathing creatures, the native fauna of Tallon IV did not cause us much trouble. For her part, Samus stayed curled up against the cold. I heard her muttering now and then, and it did not sound angry; but I did not speak any hominid tongue, so I could not understand her.

But as we approached one of the watch stations, fear began to return. There was no way around the watch tower, and with the Hunter escaped it would be full of the Others. The possibility that we could both die at the hands of the Others had always been there, but now it would not leave my mind. I entered the elevator leading up to the watch tower, and suddenly realized I could go no further.

I stood there for a while, and finally Samus raised her head and asked a question, probably wondering what I was doing. She had stated that I must not think about death, only surviving. About what I would do afterward, which was to help her retrieve her suit. I tried very hard to only focus on this objective, and took a couple steps forward. Then I froze again.

She looked at me, and then out through the small window where I stood. Three of the Others waited out there, their bodies tense, watching warily for any sign of a disturbance. An Elite stood behind them. Samus tapped my thorax lightly and pointed to the opposite door. Looking closer, I could see its lock had been broken; likely her own work. She spoke softly and made a series of gestures that seemed to suggest I run to the opposite door as quickly as possible. Certainly there was no way the Elite would fit through there; if the space behind was narrow enough I would be able to fight one at a time.

This made logical sense, but was risky, very risky. I calculated a 90% possibility that it would not work. I stepped forward, then back again. I could not make my legs work properly.

Samus watched me for a while, even though I did not have any real expression like hominids do. It was an advantage we had programmed into ourselves. Why advertise fear to the enemy? Finally she patted her hand against my thorax, her voice rising and falling as she offered both words of solace and encouragement.

How did I know they were meant to encourage me, to pull away my fear? I cannot say. I can only assume it was something in how our mutual _I_ worked together. Yet, strangely, it seemed to work. I could feel the fear receding in the back of my mind, being replaced by the strength of my _I_, urging to be heard. To complete the mission I had set out to do. To prove that the _I_ is the source of power in the galaxy. Not the Others.

I clutched the bundle I carried tightly, and felt her tense. Fearing I would become immobile again if I waited too long, I charged through the door onto the watchtower platform.

My sudden appearance certainly caught the Others off guard, and for a precious few seconds they did nothing but stand and gawk as I sprinted to the opposite side. Then, a split second before I reached the door, the Elite calmly stepped in front of it. Nearly slamming into it, I skidded to a halt and set off my missile launcher right into its face. It bellowed in rage and I dodged off to the side as the rest of the Others finally came after me. I took a hard turn and squeezed in behind the Elite, but felt long-fingered hands grasping both at me and my burden. The Others threw me on my back, one with its weapon arm against my neck. "8411-B? Impossible," I heard a voice speak beside me.

"It must be. Look at what the traitor has brought!" Another one ripped the shroud apart and held Samus aloft by one leg. "The Hunter is not so impressive without her hard shell, is she?"

In response, Samus reached up and grasped its bulging eyes, then pulled them from their sockets.

The hapless Other shrieked so loudly that it distracted all the rest for a split second, allowing me to rise from the ground and shoot one of the many ordinance boxes on the platform. In the ensuing explosion I picked up Samus where she had dropped lightly to her feet and ducked into the bunker above the door. The opening in the bunker had been positioned in such a way that they could not fire directly at us if we stayed in one corner. They tried anyway, and I knew we could not stay there forever, waiting for them to blow it up entirely. Samus jumped up and down, arms around her body, her face turning blue from the cold.

The bunker had a weapons cache of its own. I pried apart the containers and fished out rocket launchers, laser guns, and a jet pack. Samus seized one of the guns and I took everything else. I motioned for her to climb upon my back and she did so. I blasted a hole into the ceiling of the bunker and rose into the air.

The Others raised their heads as one and then their arms to fire. I let loose every weapon I had at once, a death blossom of missiles and laser fire. Some found their mark, some crashed into the watch towers themselves. In the ensuing noise and rubble and flying bits of exoskeleton, I ducked into the doorway and flew down into the elevator shaft. I fired the last of the extra missiles at the shaft itself and it collapsed inward, showering us with dust but sealing the Others outside.

I felt Samus lightly step off my back, no longer deathly cold as we were in the research area, sheltered from Phendrana Drifts' natural temperature. Cold enough to slow down Metroids, but warm enough for her to survive.

She came round in front of me, chattering excitedly. Praise. Something I had not heard before, should not have recognized, but did…thanks to my _I._

I looked behind her toward the tunnel that led to where her suit was being held. That would be the hardest part; it was sure to be well guarded. We still had much ahead of us.


	8. Chapter 8

Samus stepped forward to the next door, but I held her back. She turned round with a half irritated, half quizzical expression on her face, raising the laser gun she had taken from the Others' stash, as if that were enough to protect her.

I doubted this was carelessness on her part; it likely had to do with the fact that she could not be dependent on anyone else but herself. "There are likely security cameras in most of the rooms," I explained, pointing to the ceiling and doing my best to mimic the characteristic whine of the charging lasers. "They are potent enough to burn through flesh. You should let me go first." I attempted to push her gently behind me.

Samus shook her head, and pointed to the damage I had already sustained in my exoskeleton from the security drones and the Others' fire. She tapped the Elite shield on my back and then attempted to pull it off.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to be gentle in batting her hands away. She unloaded an irate torrent of speech onto me and made a series of gestures I didn't understand. I could feel exhaustion beginning to set in and in resignation I took off the shield, just to see what she would do with it.

Demonstrating again her uniqueness among hominids, she grasped the heavy object by the hooks I had used to hang it on my back and pushed it slowly in front of her. As the door opened, I heard the security lasers come to life and fire. They hit the shield, and Samus jumped up behind it in split-second increments to fire her laser gun. Within a few minutes both security lasers were offline. She turned back to me and gave me a little smile of accomplishment, then pushed the shield back.

I reattached it and she moved forward, slowly and quietly. In her blue clothing she made almost no sound, in contrast to the characteristic ringing of Chozo alloy on metal. I understood her emphasis on stealth and attempted to walk as quietly as possible, so as not to give us away. We sneaked up on several guards, able to fire upon them before they even knew we were there.

As we entered the large research center, I stopped her again and tapped the fragment of the Elite visor I had plugged into my optical sensors. Looking upward, I pointed to an invisible Other that one eye could see and the other could not. She watched as I pointed to a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth. And that was just on this floor. Her suit was being held three floors down.

I turned to her, unsure what to do. Even if we attacked three or four before the others realized we could see them, once the entire group came after us there would be little hope for our survival.

She stared out over the room, deep in thought. Finally she grabbed my arm and pointed to one of the holding chambers. I could see the oval form of a Metroid bobbing behind its energy barrier. She gestured toward my missile launcher and then to the Metroid, and then pointed to the Others, drawing her finger across her throat.

I understood, though I felt doubtful. Metroids were at least as dangerous as the Others, and if we freed them, they would not distinguish between prey. However, we did have a slightly better probability of survival if we attempted to turn the Metroids onto the Others. The Metroids would attack the first thing they saw, and there were many more Others than there were of us.

Still, I could not think of anything else, and it was a good idea in theory, at least. I nodded and aimed my missile launcher at the holding chamber. I watched the Others tense and then relax as the missile sped past them, probably thinking I had missed my target. It crashed into the barrier and exploded, the Metroid popping out with a triumphant shriek. It bounced about the room, seeking heat, and after a few moments attached itself to one of the Others' faces. The Other made a cry of surprise, dropped to the floor, and attempted to pry the Metroid off; it fell dead in a matter of seconds. With a satisfied chirp, the Metroid popped back up into the air and began searching for its next victim.

I turned briefly to Samus, who watched the scene unfold with a satisfied grin on her face. For myself, I worried over how long it would take for the Others to stop attempting to hide and attack us as well as the Metroid, or for the Metroid to find us.

My fears came to fruition as the Metroid attacked the seventh out of the eighth, and the eighth one fell from the ceiling and ran toward us. Both Samus and I fired upon it, stopping it in its tracks, but the sounds of our weapons brought the entire three floors down upon us. As the roars of the Others filled the air, Samus and I fired into the fray.

I attempted to protect her, but she slipped away from me and dodged as many of the Others as she could, completely focused on regaining her suit. Once she got it, she could easily destroy every one of the Others in the room; but I doubted that even she could accomplish this. I covered her as well as I could, firing upon any of the Others that aimed their weapons at her, taking several hits myself. She released more Metroids, and they eagerly devoured the life force of their captors.

Finally, amazingly, all of the Others were dead. But now we had a swarm of Metroids swirling around us, ever hungry and hunting for more. As one after the other took up the hunting cry, I positioned myself between the swarm and Samus, who frantically worked the terminal next to the holding chamber that held her suit. She glanced up anxiously at the shrieking Metroids, raising her laser gun.

I motioned for her to continue working at the terminal. If she could get her suit, we would have no more trouble from the Metroids. I, however, was running out of missiles. I stood my ground, firing at any that attempted to bypass me for her and striking out at those which came too close with my weapon arm.

During that period I had a strange experience, one that could only be tied to the acquisition of my _I_. By all logical means, I should have locked myself in one of the safety chambers and rode out the assault. But I could not abandon my fellow _I_. In this room, where I had received my first orders from my superior, I now stood in defense of the Hunter. I understood that I could lose my life and my newly acquired _I_ at any time. And yet, my _I _protested at the idea of leaving. It offered me no explanation for this behavior…and yet, I did not feel I needed one.

Three missiles left. Two. One. I ran out, and I did not dare take even the brief second to turn around and see how far Samus had progressed. I struck out with my weapon arm, and managed to bat them off at first. But there were too many to fight with just one arm. One of them slipped through the swipes and attached itself to my chest; another found the back of my head.

It hurt. I did not remember such pain from my past experience handling them. But then, this time I was injured. They found the holes in my exoskeleton, tapping them like faucets. I could feel my life draining away. I felt weak, exhausted, and my vision blurred. Vaguely aware of the floor hitting my face, I realized I could not move.

Strangely, I did not ponder death. I only hoped that I had given Samus enough time.

And time passed. At some point I realized that I was not yet dead. But I could not form a coherent thought, could not get a clear visual picture of my surroundings. I heard someone calling me. Who could it be? The Others did not speak of Dr. B, and I could not be sure that Samus…

Suddenly, a wonderful stimulus assaulted my taste receptors. Sweet, so sweet! A flavor to drive all other thoughts out of mind! Melty, chewy, sweet…I must have more of it! I came back from whatever edge I had nearly fallen over, drawn by the enchanting sweetness.

My vision cleared, and all at once I could see the familiar visor of the Hunter, Samus' eyes crinkled up in a smile. My joy at seeing her again mixed in strangely with this new stimulus. Something sweet in my mouth, a brown, waxy substance. "Dr. B, you're all right," she said with obvious relief.

I was certainly not 'all right', but I was well enough to ponder the existence of this new substance. "What is this fantastic sustenance?" I asked.

She laughed. "It's called chocolate. I keep a little in one of my suit compartments for emergencies."

I sat up from the floor, despite the pain radiating throughout my body. "Such an amazing material! Truly, it has life-giving properties! I did not know hominids could manufacture anything of this nature."

"Life-giving? I wouldn't go that far, but it certainly helped." She put the remainder of the 'chocolate' in a small compartment on the side of her suit and helped me to my feet. "Can you walk? There are probably some medical supplies around here somewhere."

"I can. I believe I know where the medical supplies are stored here. Do you need anything?"

She shook her head.

I made my way slowly toward a small compartment on the other side of the room. Pressing a small switch, I found a medi-hypo container and set to work repairing the damage.

"Dr. B?" Her voice sounded slightly unsure.

"Yes."

"I…thank you."

I had to think for a moment to remember the proper hominid courtesy reply. The Others do not use such rituals. They are viewed as a waste of time and resources, in a race that pins everything on efficiency and conquest. "You are welcome."

"I…I've only been carried twice in my life. The first time was when the Chozo found me…"

I looked up at her in puzzlement. "Found you? Were you lost? Oh, that reminds me…may I ask a question?"

She blinked, just as puzzled as I. "I suppose…you can ask."

"The Others' computer stated that you had Chozo DNA," I explained. Seeing the look on her face, I said, "don't worry, I deleted the information. But I wanted to ask…why does the Others' experiments anger you, if you yourself participated in genetic experiments with the Chozo?"

"Wh-what?! I didn't…I didn't participate in…" Her voice and heart rate rose, and I stepped back, realizing I had angered her again. "They saved my life! I didn't ask for it…it was the only way I would survive on Zebes!"

This did not make any sense to me. "If you knew you could not survive on Zebes, why did you go there?"

"I didn't have a choice!" I realized I had hit upon something very dangerous, and yet I could not pull away from my line of questioning. "The Chozo brought me there…"

"The Chozo kidnapped you? That seems highly unusual, even though I know little about them…"

"They didn't! I…" Agitated, she stomped around in a tight circle, instinctively raising her cannon arm against a threat that did not exist. "The Others…they attacked the human colony where I was born. The Chozo tried to help, but…by the time they got there, there was no one else left…"

"You survived one of the Others' raids?" I had rarely heard of such a thing, and viewed her now with even greater respect.

Her shoulders drooped slightly, as if from exhaustion. "I…I was lucky, that's all. Just lucky…" She leaned against the wall and put her hand to her visor.

I realized I probably had gone too far. "I'm sorry, Samus. I will stop asking questions if it upsets you."

"No, it's all right. I'm fine." She stood straight, despite her voice sounding a bit thin. "It's in the past. Right now we have other things to worry about. Dr. B, if you're finished, let's go back to the Chozo shrine. We've got to get rid of Metroid Prime."


	9. Chapter 9

Along with the medical supplies I found a small travel pack. I placed much of what I had found in the pack and strapped it to my side. "What kind of first-aid is this, anyway?" Samus asked, tapping the patches I had made over the holes in my exoskeleton.

"That is a piece of chitinite, affixed in place with small rivets," I explained. "I will keep it there until my exoskeleton grows back. It takes a long time, so the patch has to be sturdy, but overall it is a better method than hominid bandages." A little hesitantly, I asked, "Please do not take offense, but how did a species with such easily damaged bodies survive long enough to evolve into a state where they could comprehend and utilize interplanetary travel?"

She tapped the chest of her suit with her knuckles. "Humans have been putting one kind of protection or another on their bodies for about as long as they've been in existence. Fabric to regulate temperature, and metal armor to repel attacks."

"Do you have no creatures with exoskeletons on your planet of origin?"

"Yes we do, or so I'm told. They're not intelligent, but they've been around longer than humans." She motioned toward my medical pack. "You finished? I got a few scratches, but I can fix them if I stop at my ship before we enter the temple."

This proposal drove all thoughts of hominid medicine out of my mind. The Hunter's ship! The Others rarely managed to get a glimpse of it. She had managed to procure some special cloaking technology that we had not yet been able to crack. "Yes, I am finished."

It was a long journey back to the small valley where she kept her ship, but much easier to maneuver now that she had her suit. Once again, we met little resistance on the way. I figured that the Others must be regrouping; I doubted very much now that they would give up so easily. In fact, worry began to slow my steps, as I wondered what the Others might throw into our path this time to stop us. Setbacks only made them more determined to conquer.

"Samus," I said after a good three hours of silence between us, "I do not know much about it, but I remember a journal entry about additional security measures at the crater impact site. It said something about a bio-form being created to guard the site, using new technology. This bio-form was pieced together from the remains of another _I_. They called it…"

"Meta Ridley. Yes, I know." She stiffened at the name. "I read the same entry." Pausing, she asked, "Is it possible for your kind to resurrect the dead?"

I considered this. "I know little about this initiative, as I played no role in it. But…I understand that bio-form Ridley's brain was preserved, and that a new body was created using cybernetic technology. The Others are very good at that." I motioned toward my leg. "If you were to shoot off my leg, and yet leave me to survive, I could get a new one made out of artificial materials. Our bodies are adapted to accept foreign material quite easily. I would advise that you make every attack a clean kill."

"I'll keep that in mind," was all she said.

We finally reached the Tallon overworld. I didn't notice anything at first, just another plant-covered pile of rocks that had once been a structure of some sort. But then Samus tapped her weapon arm, and a small, sleekly built gunship suddenly appeared before my eyes.

"I'll just be a second," Samus said, jumping lightly to the top of the ship and then disappearing within it. I touched it lightly with one hand, that one gesture strangely more forbidden than all of the other things I had done for the Hunter's benefit. I admired the design, the way the rockets expelled so little fuel that it would not be picked up by our sensors.

"Okay, finished," she said, and appeared at the top of the ship. She laughed at my rapt interest. "You like it?"

"It sounds foolish," I said, "but the Others know even less about your ship than your suit, so it seems more attractive."

"I'd rather they went after the ship, if I'm not in it. I can live without it if I need to." She handed me a missile pack from her stores, then motioned for me to follow her. "C'mon, the temple is just ahead."

As we entered a series of long hallways, her manner changed ever so slightly, in a way that must have been subconscious. She did not stomp as hard on the ground, and walked a little straighter, as if our surroundings somehow commanded more respect than the other places we had been. But there were no turrets or other weapons that would demand caution. I think it had something to do with the fact that it was an important place to the Chozo, and Samus had gained part of her _I_ from them. Of course, I treated areas full of Phazon with respect, but that was also because it was dangerous, not just because it had given me my _I_.

We entered an open courtyard filled with stone carvings that glowed blue. I remembered this site from images in journal entries and there had been no blue in them before, so Samus must have done something to create this change. As I watched, she held something like a gear in her hands and affixed it to one of the statues. A bright flash nearly blinded me, and the ground began to rumble as if other gears in other carvings were now turning as part of a machine. A great pillar of light rose from the middle of the courtyard, and Samus glanced around excitedly, as if waiting for a door to open.

For my part, I stepped back a few paces. I knew the Others guarded this place and there could be no doubt that a giant pillar of light would be noticed, from quite a long distance. I watched the opening from which we had come, but did not see or hear any of the Others.

For a few minutes nothing happened. Samus turned to speak to me and then suddenly jerked her head in the opposite direction, weapon arm raised. "Did you hear that?"

The gears made a lot of noise. I strained my ears and could hear a faint roar that came from off in the distance - a strange metallic sound, like Samus' digital translation of her human words. It seemed familiar, but I could not place it. She stepped quickly to the edge of the courtyard, which ended in a high cliff, then took several hurried steps back.

"What is it?" I asked, and before I even finished speaking a whirlwind flashed over us, through the air and behind the structure. I was about to ask again when a sudden change in Samus' manner nearly made me turn around and run. It was not fear, or excitement, but rage. Pure, illogical rage, that I could sense through my _I_.

"Damn you! Why do you still live!" Her words were not directed at me. They were directed at the thing flying above us. In fact, she seemed to have forgotten I was there. The thing swooped down closer and unleashed a blast of fire at the stone carvings, knocking several of them over. Finally I recognized it; it was Ridley.

Now I was unsure of what to do. Here were the two strongest beings with an _I_ that I knew. My _I_ wished to fight with Samus, but it also recoiled in fear of Ridley. Samus had beaten Ridley before, I reasoned, without help from anyone. I decided to stay out of the way unless things started turning bad for her. I hid in the entrance from which we came.

I noticed immediately that Samus behaved strangely in her fight with Ridley, different from any of the other attacks I'd seen. Before, she'd had a calm, almost detached air, dispatching the Others with mechanical precision. Now her movements seemed more frantic, almost like her fight for survival when I had first met her, but she was not in any immediate danger that I could see. She made angry cries when he dodged her shots. She still fought skillfully, but there was a desperation in her movements that had not been there before.

Ridley did not speak, though I knew he could. He had spoken to me as part of a group of the Others when I first came to this planet. Some speech about hard work and glory. Now he had found the Hunter and put all his concentration in attempting to dispose of her. If he saw me, he didn't acknowledge my presence.

Both of their shots found their marks, and after what seemed like a long time Ridley made a shrieking roar of anger. His wings disintegrated before us, made of some kind of energy that Samus must have depleted with her weaponry. He folded their frames, and made a great show of appearing low on energy, his head bowed and tail dragging on the ground. I never believed Samus would fall for such a ruse, but to my surprise she ran right toward him!

He made a bark of triumph and rammed into her so fast that she went flying past me before I even registered his movement. As she scrambled to her feet, he whipped his tail around and struck her again. Each time she attempted to move out of his way, he would ram her before she could get a shot in, then strike her with his tail as he whirled round. As she struggled to rise after the seventh or eighth hit, I attempted to move forward and found I could not. Ridley's cries, his movements, and their promise of death were holding me back.

Ridley strode forward and grabbed Samus with one hand, throwing her against the stone structure. He picked her up again and started bashing her against the rock. I felt an almost physical force pushing me to do something to help her, but what could I do? Her _I_ was stronger than mine, and if she could not defeat Ridley then what could I hope to accomplish?

Still, if she lost, then I certainly would die too. So there was an almost certain chance of death, and a certain chance of death. Since helping Samus would give us both a slight chance at life, I had to think of a way to help somehow. I needed a way to boost her _I_. What had created her _I_? How could I strengthen it?

Samus' wrath came from her hatred of the Others. The Others had destroyed her hominid colony. Ridley had led the attack on hominid colony K-2L.

Samus had forbidden me from speaking about K-2L.

Samus' _I_ reacted strongly in her fight with Ridley.

Suddenly I understood.

I stepped forward, all fear gone. "Ridley."

He turned his head to look at me, and stopped bashing Samus against the wall but held her weapon arm tight so that she could not fire on him. "So. The traitor, 8411-B." His voice had a computerized quality to it, his original voice box replaced with a cybernetic one.

"I am no longer 8411-B. I am Dr. B."

"Dr. B, what are you-" Samus began, but Ridley cut her off with a barking laugh.

"So it is true!" he exclaimed. "This one has gained sentience! Well, we can't have that, can we?" He reached for me. "All threats to Our supremacy must be eliminated."

I stepped back. "Then you must also destroy yourself."

His eyes narrowed, in a more humanlike manner than he probably would like to admit. "What?"

I gathered my courage, and laid out my revelation. "You destroyed Samus' hominid familial structure. So when the Chozo gave her weapons, she came for those that had stolen from her. The Federation deems you a threat for your crimes against them. But you have also committed a crime against your own kind."

"Because you created the Hunter."

Ridley's eyes widened at this final pronouncement. "What are you-"

I aimed my missile launcher. "All threats must be eliminated." I fired, once, twice, several times, keeping all my concentration on the place where his pulmonary center would have been, had he been alive.

But I only had ten missiles.

He dropped Samus in his fury and grabbed my weapon arm when I raised it to defend myself. He yanked, hard, and I felt an impossible influx of pain as he ripped the arm right out of its socket, then tossed it over the cliff.

"How dare you, a simple drone, raise any weapon against me?" he demanded. "Now you are as helpless as a fly with its wings pulled from its body. Shall I pull your other limbs? How long do you think your head can survive on its own?"

Suddenly he jerked back as Samus' wave beam stuck him full in the chest. He yowled and cursed, and attempted to strike her, but she held her ground. One knee to the ground, cannon arm supported by her other hand, she pushed Ridley slowly away from both of us as he desperately attempted to attack. As I struggled to control the waves of pain she inched closer and closer to the cliffside, pushing Ridley ever further toward the edge. Finally, with a great push, she heaved him over the side, the wave beam's purple crisscross spanning his body like a spider's web. He fell, shrieking, for a long time down the cliff. He did not return.

Samus watched for a few moments, as if to ensure he was dead. Then she limped over to me. "Dr. B, are you all right?"

I held my hand over the hole in my shoulder. "I will be fine. I can utilize another chitinite patch and then I can go on."

"Go on? I was going to bring you back to the ship, and let you stay there after I healed up."

"I can manage. I wish to see Metroid Prime, remember?"

"Dr. B, you're _missing_ an _arm."_

I stood. "My kind can fight with a missing limb. I hurt, but I wish to follow you. To make sure there are no more surprises."

"Dr. B." She said nothing for a long while. Then she motioned for me to follow her back to her ship. "We'll both get patched up, and then we'll see this thing through to the end."


	10. Chapter 10

Covering the empty arm socket required all of the chitinite that remained in the medical travel pack. I secured the rivets in place and then stood, trying to ignore the pains that shot through my body when I unconsciously tried to move the missing arm. I felt no pain when I did not try to move it, but my weapon arm had contributed more to my sense of balance than I had realized. If I leaned too far to the other side, pain would shoot through my body as I attempted to use a nonexistent arm to right myself.

Still, this held me back very little. The Others are designed to be able to withstand great trauma and still continue fighting.

Samus still remained in her ship. I had told her that I would find more missiles after I repaired myself, as I wanted to face Metroid Prime with as much ammunition as possible. I could not risk the creature taking advantage of me the same way that Ridley had. This did not take very long; the Others left weapons caches hidden all around the planet, so that they had access to them if they were attacked without warning. Some of the caches were empty; I assumed Samus had already visited them.

When I returned, fully armed with missiles, Samus sat on top of her ship, waiting for me. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Yes."

"You realize there's no backing out, once we go in the crater."

This seemed obvious to me. "I have no reason not to go. The Others will not accept me. If I must die, I would prefer to be with you than executed by them for following my_ I_."

She paused. "Thank you, Dr. B."

"You are welcome." I would have to start learning hominid courtesy, or else I would probably miss an instance where I should use 'thank you'. It seemed to come up frequently.

We walked quickly back to the shrine, and entered the glowing pillar of light. This was Chozo technology, and I had never really seen it in action (other than Samus' suit), so I excitedly waited to see what would happen.

I did not feel myself moving at all, but the next thing I knew, we were both standing at what must have been the bottom of the crater. Its appearance startled me. With the reddish-black colors of the walls, and the tooth-like minerals jutting out of them, it looked like we had stepped into the maw of some enormous creature. I felt the slight burning sensation that came with exposure to a massive amount of Phazon. I hoped finding Metroid Prime would not take very long.

The first chamber had nothing in it but a swarm of small overworld creatures, a surprise nonetheless as I did not think such fragile animals could survive in such a harsh environment. The second chamber had an island in the middle of some volatile material, which bubbled and burned even though I did not touch it. I gingerly followed Samus as she jumped across the liquid to the island, and we had hardly taken more than a few steps when we heard the familiar hunting cry of Metroids.

"I'll handle this," said Samus. She fired a bullet of ice at it, but surprisingly, the creature merely shook it off with an irritated screech. Samus switched to missiles, and unloaded about ten of them before the Metroid finally burst.

Above us hovered the floating platforms that the Others used. They had likely been put in place by the units that had engaged Metroid Prime. Samus jumped from one to the next and I followed. She had only reached the third one when we heard a peculiar burbling sound…and another Metroid popped right out of the viscous liquid.

"You've got to be kidding me," Samus muttered, raising her weapon.

"We should try to outrun it instead," I called to her. "If you kill it, more will appear. Go forward! I will stun any that come near."

She took my advice and hurried up the platforms. I followed closely behind, firing my missiles at any that came close enough to grab hold. The missiles did little but annoy them, yet I managed to keep them away from us.

We jumped through the chamber door and found a yawning chasm between us and the next door. Samus fired a crackling straight-line beam at the ceiling and motioned to me. "Grab hold, Dr. B, and I'll swing us across."

She probably forgot that the Phazon covering her suit burned me. Regardless, I couldn't think of anything better, so I clung to her suit with one arm for the brief few seconds it took to cross the chasm. The Phazon did not hurt nearly as much as losing an arm, but I did worry slightly about what effect all this radiation would have on my body.

We ran through the final chamber door, to find…nothing. Or at least that was what it looked like at first glance. I stared about at the stones a bit, which were now black and crisscrossed with veins of bluish glowing Phazon.

"It's a cocoon with a face!" Samus exclaimed. I looked up to see what she was staring at. There did indeed appear to be strange markings on a cocoon-like structure, whitish circles and lines on a black surface that could pass as a crude representation of a face.

"If it is still in a pupa stage, perhaps we can destroy it without any problems," I suggested, though I couldn't remember anything like this described in the journals about Metroid Prime.

Samus raised her weapon arm, and suddenly the creature moved. Its structure split into six legs and a body, crooked and splayed like an enormous crab. The "face" had in fact been its back, and its true face snarled at us with a sound unlike I had ever heard before. Metroid Prime turned away from us and fled down a burrow behind it. Samus followed without hesitation.

I doubted that the creature fled from us out of fear. "Don't get too close!" I cautioned. "It has stolen numerous weapon capabilities from the Others. It may attempt to back you into a corner!"

"Yeah, okay, Dr. B. I've done this sort of thing before, you know," she shot back.

Metroid Prime lunged forward with its front legs, smashing large stones that stood between us. It fired a volley of energy balls not unlike the ones that Samus used as her base weapon. We both dodged them, and Samus returned fire in like kind.

After several minutes of this, the markings on the creature - which had changed from white to yellow - shifted again to a violent violet. Out of the creature's mandibles shot a purplish beam, which wrapped itself around Samus much as her wave bean had ensnared Ridley, and began pulling her toward it!

Samus fired upon it with everything in her arsenal, and I unleashed a series of missiles right into its face. Metroid Prime let go of Samus and backed up quickly, disappearing into yet another burrow, with both of us in hot pursuit.

We leaped down further into the warren, Metroid Prime shifting color yet again, an angry red. We both leaped as one to either side as it fired a massive beam of white-hot energy at us, singeing the very air around us and evaporating any moisture within it. Samus responded with her own red-hot beam, jumping nimbly aside as it fired upon her again and again.

Without warning it charged forward, faster than either of us could dodge out of the way. Samus thought quicker than I, rolling into her Morph Ball form whereas I connected with one of Metroid Prime's legs. I flew through the air and landed hard on the ground, but as I picked myself up I could find no damage to my exoskeleton.

Metroid Prime turned yellow again, and Samus switched weapons to fire upon it. I noticed its back legs raise upward, and I watched with surprise and trepidation as it fired a pair of missiles from them. "Samus, look out! There are-"

"Kinda busy here, Dr. B," she snapped tersely, dodging its flailing leg and firing into its face.

I fired my own missiles at the flying projectiles, and to my relief that was enough to get rid of them. Unfortunately, Metroid Prime kept firing more, so I had my hands full covering Samus' back while she went on the offensive.

As the fight wore on, Metroid Prime switched colors faster and faster, sometimes switching from one to another without firing, throwing Samus and I off balance as we attempted to match its attacks. Several times it charged us, but both of us took refuge in the shallow ruts that the beast had likely scratched into the ground with its massive legs. Finally, we reached what must have been the creature's lair; there were no more burrows leading down.

Metroid Prime shrieked in pain and anger, its Phazon exoskeleton crumbling around it. Out of the rubble another creature emerged, looking much like the juvenile or 'hunter' metroids.

But this one had eyes.

They glowed, and they could see us. They glowered in anger and stared directly at us, watching us as we shifted our feet, ready to move at a millisecond's notice and planning our next move.

It struck out at us with long, flailing tentacles. Samus jumped back and landed on a bright patch of Phazon. When her weapon next fired, it burst forth with a whitish-blue flame and Metroid Prime cried out in pain. "What happened?" I asked.

"It's the Phazon! It's done something to the suit…strengthened its power!" I did not pretend to understand how this could work; Chozo technology was alien to me. But Samus had obviously obtained a powerful new weapon. She fired more shots, charging her cannon so as to unleash more upon it at once.

All of a sudden, it disappeared.

I scanned the chamber with both eyes. "It is not in the visible spectrum, and not in the infrared spectrum," I announced. We both knew it had to still be there, for we could hear its angry roars.

Samus glanced around, then aimed at a spot just above my head. I jumped back in surprise as she fired on something that shrieked and howled. "I've got it covered, Dr. B!"

I left this fight to her. She moved quickly, deftly, confident that she had her quarry close to its end. As she moved from patch to patch of Phazon, her suit lit up with an ethereal glow and impossibly bright energy fired from her cannon.

Finally, it was over. The creature made a ear-shattering burbling cry, and began to break down into its original form. But it still refused to accept defeat. It wrapped one long tentacle around Samus' body, attempting to pull her toward it, for what purpose I did not know. I grabbed one of her arms and ground my feet into the stone, pulling back as hard as I could.

In a turn of events I still do not understand, the Phazon covering stripped from Samus' body and the remains of Metroid Prime absorbed it into its body. The sudden influx of Phazon caused a massive explosion, and I could feel the entire chamber shake as small chunks of rock rained down on our heads.

"Hurry, Dr. B! The crater's going to collapse!" We both jumped, climbed, and ran back the way we came. As seemingly the entire planet shook around us, we charged back into the Chozo light-beam and returned to the surface. But even there we were not safe. The Chozo shrine shook and steamed as the wild energy from below fought its way upward, through the artifacts that had crisscrossed its heart and sealed Metroid Prime below.

As the ground cracked beneath us, Samus quickly pressed the buttons on her weapon arm and motioned for me to follow her. In just a few moments her ship appeared, and she jumped aboard. I followed, watching to see what she would do.

For a few minutes, she did nothing, but merely watched the shrine slowly collapse. She took off her helmet and her eyes searched the crater, looking from side to side for something that neither of us could see.

Her face held an emotion I had not yet seen; distress. "Is something the matter?"

"I…" She shook her head. "It's foolish, Dr. B. I thought that if I got rid of the Worm…I mean, Metroid Prime…the Chozo would return…"

I was surprised. "But the Chozo are extinct." I said nothing more, nothing about evidence of their extinction or the campaigns against them by the Others, since she seemed upset enough.

"Yeah, I know. I know, Dr. B." She closed her eyes for a moment, then spoke again. "C'mon, let's get out of here."

She entered her ship, clearly indicating for me to follow. I was not sure what to make of this at first; if _touching_ the Hunter's ship had seemed forbidden before, going _inside_ it seemed surreal. Although it was very small, there was more than enough room for the two of us. I figured she might have missions other than killing 'Space Pirates'; escorting important people, perhaps. For a while I amused myself by examining every button, screen, and element of design. I didn't even realize we had left the planet until it had already disappeared from view.

Samus wiped her hand across her face, then said to me in a strained but optimistic voice, "What will you do now, Dr. B?"

"Do?" I realized that I had left any remnants of my previous purpose behind. It was just me, Samus, and my _I. _"I'm not sure. What should I do?"

She gave me a small smile. "You're free now, Dr. B. You can do whatever you want to do."

I thought for a moment. "This freedom is puzzling. It makes me a little unsure."

She laughed. "Well, what do you like to do? What do you want to do?"

I thought more. "I like science. I like examining things, and finding new things, and discovering their purpose."

"All right then." She entered her coordinates into her ship's main computer. "I'm sure I can find something along those lines for you."

"Oh! Um…thank you?"

Her eyes shone. "You're welcome, Dr. B."

**The End**

---

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed my first Metroid story. There is already a sequel in the works, mostly centered around Dr. B but with plenty of Samus as well. It will mostly contain events from other games, though exactly which ones I'm not sure yet.


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